iGouge

Thursday, June 28, 2007
This Friday, customers of Apple Computer will wait in lines to take it in the ass by paying $600 for a phone. Then they are forced to sign a contract with AT&T, which is notorious for slow and shitty cell phone service. After the 2 year contract is signed these drones will pay up to $3,000 to use a phone for two years. Because Apple cares about its customers so much, they are out pricing the next competitor by double and then forcing them to sign a contract with a known lemon. Thanks Apple, we appreciate the love!

Who is the more foolish: the fool or the fool who follows the fool? In every case it's always the fool who follows the fool. Although this $600 price tag is a better example of price gouging than the oil companies, people will line up like brainless drones for a chance to dump their money for something which will be obsolete in six months. Then they’ll have to line up again to dump another $600 for the same thing but with more RAM or a different color.

When I see people willing to pay $3,000 to use a phone for two years, then I can very easily foresee $6 a gallon gas prices. The American consumer is infatuated with taking it in the ass, in fact; they’ll line up to take it in the ass. If gas prices were $6 per gallon, people would still buy the enormo SUV’s by the bushel because GM told them they needed it or they saw a commercial and it looked cool. When will people start to think with their brain instead of their ego?

This is the reason people in other countries hate us so much. We are a brainless society. We buy gold chains when we can’t afford food. We buy vehicles which burn gas like a forest fire consumes trees, while we watch the effects of global warming on the news like it’s a video game. We shop with forklifts and over pay for everything with a 29% credit card and then file bankruptcy next year. Meanwhile our expenses runneth over our income like the Gulf of Mexico at a New Orleans’ levy during a hurricane. Then we end up crying on Dr. Phil because our wife fucked the trash guy after the house was foreclosed.

The typical American consumer spends $1.10 for every $1 they earn, and the average credit card debt is closing in on $10,000 per household. This is stupid behavior but when people line up to pay $600 for a phone then I can easily see how this happens.


The above graph shows the escalating credit card debt in America. Lets all give Apple a big round of applause for contributing to this problem.

I’ll bet most of the people buying this device cannot afford it but will just charge it, further contributing to their downward economic slide. After all, this is not really a phone, it’s a status symbol. People will buy this device to compensate in other areas they are deficient; like maybe cock size or wallet size or even personality.

“But Darth, maybe if the hot chick at the coffee shop sees me with this phone while I drink my $6 cup of coffee, she’ll go home with me.” Could the hot chick actually have a brain and think, “What a waste of money? Anybody who spends $600 phone and $6 on a cup of coffee is a loser.” In any event, how will you even be able to afford to take her out when you will spend $3,000 for phone service for the next two years but you work at a dollar store?

When I see things like this happen, I see the collective intelligence of the entire country drop by 100 points. Can you survive with a phone which costs $300? And even that is obscene. Yea you could, but that would make too much sense. The typical American is infatuated with irrational behavior.

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For the Love of Big Brother

Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Yesterday I was interviewed for the fourth time since my unemployment began. One thing I have noticed during my job search is the amount of intrusion Corporate America is granted into our personal lives. They want personality profiles, credit reports, drug tests, skill assessments, multiple personal and professional references, FBI and police background checks, and a vial of blood and/or semen (just kidding). Am I being initiated into the Sopranos or just trying to get a job? I don’t even know anymore.

One of the most disturbing trends is the new Big Brother policy involving the Internet. Just about everyplace I have visited has WebSense or a similar device, which monitors and regulates Internet and email traffic. One such company even limits the amount of time spent on the Internet to only 5 hours per week.

As an IT worker my lifeline to technology is the Internet. I use it to solve problems, evaluate new technology and to remain informed of cutting-edge technology. I cannot imagine losing this valuable resource in the middle of an important project or when I need pertinent information quickly to rescue a downed device. Imagine being in the middle of a multitude of fires like those only to be denied Internet resources because some troll has decided 5 hours of Internet is all you need.

We are in the beginning of a new era with Corporate American heavily regulating our lives. If we consider how past erosions of our liberties began, we can easily see the beginning of this trend.

Take the seat belt laws for example. About 10 years ago most people were NOT in favor of seat belt laws. Most people saw these laws as an unneeded intrusion into their life by the government. But the legislatures were sneaky and convinced America these laws would only be enforced as a tack on to a moving violation; hence nobody would be pulled over and ticked specifically for violating the seat belt laws. People accepted this.

Yet this year as people forgot about losing their choice to wear seat belts, the laws were then enhanced so police could now issue a citation ONLY for a seat belt violation. What “they” do is start a law in its most unobtrusive form to gain acceptance. But then, over time as we forget about losing a choice or a freedom, they tighten the regulations further so the liberties are forever lost.

Corporate America is beginning a new campaign of regulating behavior, morals and laws by: monitoring employee’s Internet connections, giving drug tests and personality tests and a host of other unnecessary intrusions. I remember when there was a heated debate over drug tests. At first, they were only to be administered for jobs involving public safety but nowadays drug tests are as widely accepted as illegal government wire taps. We lost a lot of privacy by allowing corporations to intrude into our personal lives and test our bodies for foreign chemicals.

In reality what you do in your free time is your own business, but not anymore. And as time goes by these liberties will erode even further. How bad will it get? Imagine a corporation investigating your medical records and not hiring based upon an illness or a possible genetic illness which could occur in your future. Imagine NOT being hired based upon a credit report or an investigation into your television viewing habits uncovers you watch adult films. Imagine NOT being hired based upon the company monitoring your home email account or home Internet account and discovering you read a lot of left wing propaganda when they are a right wing organization. Imagine NOT getting a job because you smoke or you’re overweight. Laugh if like, but remember, we laughed in the 1990’s when the uninformed liberals told us “they” would not stop until “they” tested EVERYBODY for drugs.

Where will the line be drawn? As future generations adjust to the idea of corporate regulated intrusions, they probably won’t even notice how many freedoms they have lost. This line will slowly creep into the danger zone until corporations completely regulate morality, behavior and the laws by controlling and ultimately ending careers. Why incarcerate people when it’s cheaper to ostracize them from society by taking away their livelihood. This is almost worse than jail in one respect because you will still loose your social and economic status but you will not even have a cell to sleep in at night.

Another liberty we are slowly losing is our right to have a defense in court for an alleged crime. Certain municipalities have installed cameras at traffic signals to ticket people who run the red light. The camera takes a picture of both the license plate and the car but NOT the driver, and then a citation is issued through the mail. This citation cannot be challenged in the courts because you are guilty and your only choices are to pay the fine or go to jail. What if you were not the driver of the car? It could be your spouse, your kid, a friend you lent the car to, it could be anybody. Who cares – you’re guilty!! Will people adjust to this and then allow an automatic guilty verdict for other alleged events?

Innocent until proven guilty is one of the most important values in our country but yet not in these cases. So if people get used to an automatic guilty and not getting the right to a constitutionally guaranteed defense, then they could be treated the same way in other crimes. Again, our future generations will never realize how things used to be as the changes dissolving their liberties are slowly taken away over time. One day you wake up and they’re gone.

Did you ever file for bankruptcy? Imagine a new future of being excluded from Corporate American and never being able to find a job for filing for bankruptcy or late payments on bills. This is a perfect check and balance for corporations to finally ostracize and punish these people. Who needs the uncertainty of courts or the expense of buying judges when corporations can now take care of their own?

Conservatives suggest limiting our freedoms is necessary to live in a more secure country. I say gaining a more secure society is never worth sacrificing our liberties. If we sacrifice our liberties then the terrorists, criminals and bad guys will truly win. Once freedoms are lost they can only be regained with blood. Much blood has already been spilled by our grandparents for the freedoms we enjoy today. Don’t dishonor their sacrifice by sitting idle as our liberties are slowly drained away.

When will Americans awaken from their slumber and begin to take back their country? When will we realize what is happening? Will it be too late? As long as the Super Bowl, American Idol and the sex lives of celebrities garner more attention than these more important issues, we will quickly lose our country to fascists without a dissenting word. When our grandchildren awaken into a society completely controlled and regulated by the richest 1% of America, they can thank us for getting everything started.

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A Plea For Help

Thursday, June 07, 2007
Will somebody please invent a reanimator fluid so we can bring back FDR and the rest of the Greatest Generation from the dead? We need lessons on how to live in a democracy because none of the current residents in the United States know anything about liberty or the ideas within the Constitution. Maybe it’s because we are all too lazy or too rich or too stupid to care anymore, but whatever it is we need help quickly.

I think we also need the help of these illegal immigrants to teach us how to live in a democracy. They have been the only group to lead a demonstration against the Federal Government in several years. Remember how our government responded to this peaceful demonstration? The innocent picketers were beaten with clubs and shot with rubber bullets.

We’ve also had enough of the Dark Ages leadership style of Saddam Bush and the rest of his Bath Party followers. We now need a true believer in a democracy and human rights to lead our country again. We need a leader who will take the Constitution, in particular the Bill of Rights, seriously. We need a leader with intelligence, courage, and who understands the issues. We need someone who believes the Earth is round, revolves around the Sun and is at least 4.5 billion years old.

If this doesn’t scare the shit out of you then nothing ever will. No it’s not the latest trailer to a horror film. This is REAL life scary. A member of the media was asking questions to one of Rudy Giuliani’s staff members. When the person being interviewed did not like the questions, he had the reporter arrested and charged with espionage. Let me remind you this happened in the United States of America; NOT the Soviet Union, NOT North Korea, NOT China but right here.

I know when I use words or phrases like “fascist” or “anti-American” or “unconstitutional”, many people think they’re overkill and that I’m crazy. These are the terms which are appropriate for situations like this. Let me repeat this in case it was not read right: A member of our media, who was carrying the proper credentials and who was doing a job protected by our Constitution, was arrested for asking questions then charged with espionage. WOW!!!!

Remember the Military Commissions Act I warned you all about that Saddam Bush signed into law. These are the laws which allow him to jail anybody for any reason for any length of time without due process. It doesn’t get any more like a dictatorship in our country than this. These are the very laws they are using to jail this innocent man.

I hate to again say this but these are the types of things that will continue to happen if we get another 4+ years under Republican leadership. I cannot believe the Republican Party as a whole completely ignores Constitutional law, in particular the Bill of Rights. These are the same miscreants who are also in power at my former employer. They ignore all common sense and human rights to forge their own fascist police state. These people are no different from the former Bath Party in Iraq; similar execution of justice, similar ideology.

Is there anybody out there who will stand up to these fuck holes? The Democrats have no spine!! They cave on every issue, preferring to play party politics rather than fight for the rights and the lives of their constituents. Talk about chicken shit, the Democrats are the epitome of spineless. When I read about events like this I think to myself all hope is lost. If I can be fired for writing a blog and a reporter can be jailed for espionage for asking questions, then we are all fucked!!!

I have considered deleting this blog several times in the past couple of weeks but when I read about events like this and see them get ignored by mainstream media, I am hoping people like me will gain an audience to put an end to this behavior. This is simply wrong. How very few people can see through the right wing conspiracy’s obvious anti-American behavior baffles me to no end.

This right wing conspiracy includes all of these religious zealots who want their theology to become engraved into our law books, thereby dissolving our important separation of Church and State. Maybe these idiots never learned anything from history but religion and politics are like oil and water; they don’t mix well together. I am not including all religious people in this category, just the ones who want to practice their theology as criminal law.

When almost half of the voters continue to vote for a Republican Party which burns the Bill of Rights and celebrates its demise, then it is very easy to see how devastatingly bad things have become. Are these people misled or just plain ignorant? I would like to see a Democratic presidential candidate stand up and kick somebody’s ass – and Hilary Clinton is NOT the right one for this job.

I also can’t figure out why when I post an important topic like this, I get no feedback? Does the lack of comments mean you are all in agreement that this reporter should be jailed for espionage for asking questions to a politician? Because that is what it seems like to me? Maybe I should write about Paris Hilton or publish sex stories so I can get people to talk. Because the dumber the topic the more people speak out about it. Is everybody scared? What is it?

I would really like to know of anybody cares about their dissolving rights? Does anybody care what is happening? Does anybody care that the politicians are allowing human rights to become extinct like the dinosaurs?

I am pissed off that not more people are pissed off!!!

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