Blog of Bermanism

It seems politics are pervasive in my paltry period of prospective productivity.

All alliterations aside, look at this link:

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Cheney_tells_agency_that_Vice_Presidents_0621.html?idiot

Wow, just wow.

’nuff said

Wil Wheaton has a very concise and clear post on his blog regarding the recent passing of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Act, which prohibits online gambling in many forums and, thus, further suppresses the personal freedoms of Americans. Check out his post for more details. I write about this because, while I agree that a large country needs laws to protect its citizens and to make a society run smoothly, I hate when other people try to pass laws or send down orders designed specifically to reduce personal freedoms. Crack should be illegal. Why? Because everyone who uses it gets addicted, fast, spends all of their money on it, all of their time getting wasted, and quickly becomes a menace to society. No possible good for the one or for the many can come from people using, buying, or making crack. The only beneficiaries to crack sales are the people at the very top of the distribution chain that are getting rich from it. Now, by the same token, I believe that cigarettes should also be illegal for many of the same reasons (plus, they’re just nasty). Alcohol, well, that one walks a fine line. Plenty of good things can happen using alcohol if it is done with safety and foreknowledge of the effects of alcohol, but it mostly causes problems.

That being said, I draw the line between what the government can control at things that are universally harmful to people. For no reason should they ban internet gambling. As quoted from Wil’s blog, which was a quote from Mr. Balko:

No one is hurt when two or more consenting adults sit down for a game of poker, be it online or in person. Why any of this should be of concern to the federal government is rather perplexing. I respect the fact that many Americans—and many members of Congress—may have moral objections to gambling, online or otherwise. To them, I’d say, simply, “don’t gamble, then.”

I agree with this so completely that I give mad props to Mr. Balko and Wil Wheaton. I take the same stance on other things like abortion. If you think it is wrong and immoral to have an abortion, then don’t do it! Don’t take away other people’s personal freedoms to abort their pregnancies because a few crack whores and prostitutes abuse the system and abort children needlessly. There are many reasons that abortions could be necessary and appropriate. Perhaps a 14 year old homeless girl was raped and her having the child would only lead to a life of poverty, mistreatment, and stunted development for the child. It is actually better off like this. Of course, adoption is always an option, but it is difficult for children to get adopted and there is a high excess of them these days. I could go on and on, and I know there are other sides to this. I actually kind of agree with the religious and moral reasons for not wanting to have abortions, but to take away those freedoms may end up further ruining people’s lives for things that they may not have had any control over.

The bottom line, laws like this assume that everyone who gambles or has an abortion is a bad person who probably rapes three year old boys and beats kittens with tennis rackets in their basements for pleasure. That is not true! In fact, recent observations are starting to show that online internet communities like MySpace and FaceBook are as addictive, if not more addictive than gambling. And, both turn out to be a great feeding ground for child predators who rape three year old boys and beat kittens with tennis rackets in their basements. If someone decides to empty their wallet online, it was a conscious decision and they can deal with the consequences. It is not for the government to regulate our bad choices in life. Part of being free is having the ability to make dumbshit choices and to be able to ruin your own life whenever you want. If it happens to take down others with you, then your more of a dumbshit than most. Most people will try to fix things they break and will avoid doing something like it again.

So, to that I say, lay off government! Just because you’re not making money on this venture doesn’t mean you should squash it!

*cough*

DRM,

*cough*

Ok, I’ve ranted enough for today. Man, I’ve been political lately. I guess I’ve sprung a leak…

*sigh*

Indeed, as my last post stated, the world is full of assholes. Well, the assholes have struck my poor, defenseless car again. That’s right kids, someone broke into my car yesterday while I was at work. I was walking to my car at around 6:30pm last night and found that my passenger side window had been smashed to bits and my car rummaged through by unclean hands. Sadly, they cost me more money by breaking the window than by taking the things they did out of my car. In fact, they probably only got about $60 worth of stuff from my car. The took my radar detector, my power inverter, my iPod remote control connector, a five dollar bill, and $1.25 in quarters. Otherwise, they just made a huge mess. They didn’t bother taking my $100 sunglasses and they didn’t even try to steal my stereo (thank God), but they sure did a number on my car window.

Anyway, I spent about two hours last night cleaning up after them. I got as much of the glass out of the car as I could so that it wouldn’t blow around while I was driving with an open window in San Francisco in the summer (cold!). I have an appointment to get the glass replaced tomorrow morning downtown, but it is still annoying. The really crazy thing is that there were at least three other cars that also got broken into in that parking lot, in the exact same way. One other lady down there was still there when I arrived and we talked for a while. They got her iPod, which was brand new and top of the line. She was sad. I guess I’m just lucky that I’ve learned a thing or two from my friend Darla, don’t keep valuables in your car. So, I don’t. The only other thing they could have taken are some tire chains and jumper cables. Either way, this has been yet another annoying experience in Ari’s car land. Welcome back from vacation, huh? I’ll write about that later.

*sigh*

Ok, people officially suck (yes, this post will be a departure from my usually bright and optimistic attitude, because people suck). So, long story short, I got to my car in the parking lot after work yesterday and noticed a BIG HONKIN’ DENT in my right front fender that wasn’t there earlier that day. That means that someone had to back into my car as they were turning around (you’d have to see the parking lot to understand), hit my car pretty hard, didn’t even bat an eye, turned around and took off. No note, no stick saying I’m sorry, no messages written in the dirt on my hood apologizing, and certainly no insurance information. I don’t get it, if you back into someone else’s car, especially when they aren’t in it and can’t defend themselves, why would you take off? I know that people don’t want to pay for the damage or have their insurance rates go up because of it, but they should have thought of that before they put a BIG HONKIN’ DENT in my car. Come on people, take responsibility for your actions. If you screw up, take responsibility, do what you can to fix it, and feel better about yourself. Not to mention, fewer people around you will think you’re an ASSHOLE, which is always a positive force in your life. I know, it is hard to believe. Anyway, it is at least $800 worth of damage to my car that I get to eat entirely because my insurance deductible is too high.

Anyway, I’m going to look in to paintless dent repair. There isn’t very much paint damage, just a huge dent. So, maybe just straightening it out will help. I’m so annoyed by this, just because of the lack of integrity it takes to do something like that. Why didn’t you just break into my car and steal my stereo too? It is about the same thing at this point. Ok, I’m done venting. Idiots.