Defiantone.com

I received this article earlier today and I’ve got to say that I think that the author is absolutely insane!
I am still amazed that closed minded people still exist - this probably comes from the same people that think that minorities are the cause of ALL of our economic and social woes. Read below for the biggest piece of crap I’ve read in the past six months. Jessica read it and is freaking out because she “Barracks the vote” I’m sure Ann Coulter’s satanic tail is twitching as she digs into this one believing that we are going to fall into a jihad in America if Obama won the general election. The reality is that she and other like her are bat-shit insane for believing this kind of crap.

Rich Carrol - I hope you don’t have children - in fact, I hope that you have a freak accident that removes your ability to breed because you are a fool.

I searched for responses to this crap and found a few gems

Man your rants got me real shook! World will end if Obama is elected! Muslims will steal my daughter and wife!! US will be forced to not drink!! UN will rule our parking lots! And other crazy crap that you know doubt have thought of too!!! Wow! Facts to back up your paranoid rant would be a real plus!! Good luck during the coming apocalyptic jihad!!! Salaam Alekum!

The only saving grace of this article is that it will only be taken seriously by those who believe that Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly are serious political commentators.

Conspiracy theory is not political commentary.

The Jihad Candidate - by Rich Carroll

Conspiracy theories make for interesting novels when the storyline is not so absurd that it can grasp our attention. ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ and ‘Seven Days in May’ are examples of plausible chains of events that captures the reader’s imagination at best-seller level. ‘What if’ has always been the solid grist of fiction. Get yourself something cool to drink, find a relaxing position, but before you continue, visualize the television photos of two jet airliners smashing into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and remind yourself this cowardly act of Muslim terror was planned for eight years.

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We have the option of using headsets and talking to anyone we desire via VOIP with the computers in the internet “cafe”. Normally, I can blank out any other conversations but the guy next to me is a complete and total idiot. The person on the other end of the conversation has got to be slightly retarded. He spends most of the time explaining, in intricate detail, the most mundane and commonly known things. He has talked about how phones are great because you can call anywhere in the world (duh), he has cried about mortar attacks (whiner - there aren’t that many), and how hard it is over here (it isn’t). I’m surprised that he hasn’t yet discussed how the sun tends to heat the middle east to seasonably warmer temperatures due to its proximity to the equator. Maybe after that he’ll talk about how consuming water will keep you alive. If nothing else, he might talk about how dropping heavy objects on your foot can be painful.

If there were justice someone - me maybe - would punch him in the back of the skull and tell him to think before he utters another word. Maybe I’m in a bad mood, maybe I sound like this on the phone - but, then again, this guy could be the biggest tool in Iraq. No, let me take that back - he is more than a tool, more than a tool box, more than a tool shed. I think this guy qualifies as a tool emporium.

Odds are is that he is an officer - oh well

I’ve been reviewing some of my old posts and I noticed that I spend most of my time writing about things that cause me grief. So, I’m going to break off some of those onto a new blog called How I loathe thee

I do need some other bloggers so if you’ve got something that grinds your gears let me know and I’d be happy to share the space with you. Topic choice is up to the author and you are free to write pretty much whatever you wish. Feel free to check it out - I’ll be writing some stuff there on occasion.

This story pissed me off

Iraqi police officers voluntarily turned over their weapons to members of al-Sadr’s representatives in the Madhi Army.

If you were to surrender like this in the US military and were later caught they would probably charge you with treason. They would court martial you and shoot you. I’ve read quite a few stories about Iraqis taking more of a lead and asking for less help. In the past they would often run at the first sign of danger and leave it all to the coalition forces to do the dirty work. Lately, they’ve been able to do much more with less of our help. They are constrained by supply problems and a lack of air support - if we could get them more of what they needed and provide them with on time air support until their military is able to take over it would help them out quite a bit. When police officers surrender like this it absolutely pisses me off. Why the hell am I in your country when you don’t even want to fight?

This is a bunch of shenanigans and its got to stop.

At the end of a deployment the will of the masses dwindles and more mistakes are made. I have been a scapegoat as of late so I am trying to stay out of everything. I’m sure that in a day or two I’ll be blamed for not being a scapegoat because somebody else did something wrong and it wasn’t me. It really doesn’t matter - I just want to get out of here. I only have a problem with one or two people on my shift and its not a personality conflict but a conflict of interest. I have lots of problems with the people on day shift because they are gunning for me. When you’re in charge of the overwhelming majority of operations (80-90%) most of the mistakes - although minor - happen when you’re in charge. I’m not even sure if mistakes are being made but they’re blaming me. I don’t like to make mistakes and I take it personal - so - I’ve been quite paranoid as of late. I don’t even talk to ANYONE on day shift for fear of spawning further hate and scapegoatism -

This paranoia takes a lot out of me and I haven’t been sleeping well - hopefully it will pass - or maybe I’ll just go home.

Fuck ‘em I say. Let them be assholes - I just won’t deal with them anymore.

Ok, I had some free time on my hands after watching the Drake Bulldogs getting beat at the buzzer - by a three pointer no less - so I let my imagination run wild for a few minutes. Eventually, I needed to call in reinforcements to reel it back in but I had traveled down an interesting bunny trail. Oil prices are high and gas prices are the highest I’ve ever seen them. What can we do to lower oil prices in the short term while looking for a long term energy solution?

If you’ve read Atlas Shrugged you’ll know that you can’t always win when trying to do something for the “public good.” In the book, the government decided to nationalize D’Anconia Copper and found, much to their dismay, that it had already been dismantled and that nothing was left. They got too greedy for their own good and took everything away from those who worked for it in pursuit of a socialist state. A few revolted and set up a unique society where each earned his own - and charity was never given. We could find that if we take over the oil industry that there may be nothing left - we could have already reached Hubbert’s Peak - the point in which oil production will only decrease because we have used 50% of the available reserves.

My thought was what would happen if we nationalized the US oil industry? There isn’t much precedent for the nationalization of an industry in the United States and through my research I only found two examples. During WWI we nationalized the rail industry but promptly privatized it following the end of the war. The other example is of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Following the 9-11 attacks in NY City, the private run airport security industry was transferred to government control. Both were done in due to a national interest and only one of the two returned to private control. Venezuela recently privatized Exxon and took control of the production facilities within its border. While they only control a fraction of the market for oil they have leveraged it to create more strain on the system - thus raising prices.

Can we nationalize an industry in America by force? No - we’ve got to provide adequate compensation for the industry in accordance with UN Laws

In 1962, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 1803, “Permanent Sovereignty over National Resources,” which states that in the event of nationalization, the owner “shall be paid appropriate compensation in accordance with international law.” In doing so, the UN rejected both the traditional Calvo-doctrinist view and the Communist view. The term “appropriate compensation” represents a compromise between the traditional views, taking into account the need of developing countries to pursue reform even without the ability to pay full compensation, and the Western concern for protection of private property.

Occasionally, the nationalization of an industry does not work to the advantage of the public as it can lead to corruption and the downfall of the industry. Mexico nationalized Pemex and it has been a failure ever since. Since the government took over they have not explored for more sites or increased production on existing sites. In fact, the company is now 42 billion dollars in debt in an age of ever increasing oil prices. Bad management? Possibly - but there is much more to the equation - and I’m not going to dig into it.

Arguments for the corruption of the oil industry run rampant. I found an interesting take on rising oil prices at Seeking Alpha

- the author is talking about how the futures market creates some interesting questions - here is an excerpt

So what did happen? Well the traitors cancelled 117,558,000 barrels of oil, that’s 29M barrels A WEEK from October delivery in order for the weather girl on CNBC to be able to tell you every Wednesday at 10:30 how tight supplies are. And what did they do with those barrels? The same thing they do every month, they “roll” the contracts into the forward months, creating a false demand there for oil they never intend to accept delivery of and they have done it EVERY SINGLE MONTH FOR THE PAST 2 YEARS!
But, they are not done…

Were the traitors traders to accept delivery of the 171,442,000 barrels of oil that are still open today, BARRELS THAT THEY HAVE ALREADY BILLED YOU FOR, it would create the biggest glut of oil in US history and crash the oil markets. So these traitors traders will, in the next 4 days, CANCEL ANOTHER 130M BARRELS OF CRUDE and slip the majority of them into the next 3 months in order to create the perception that there is, simultaneously, a record demand and a tight current supply

Responses were varied but few agreed with him

The author, who seems to be totally unfamiliar with the workings of futures markets, is welcome to his misconceptions, but does not deserve space in this forum.

Wow - what’s next? Black helicopters?

Hillary has either made a flub or a direct statement that she supports the nationalization of the oil industry - your interpretation will determine your opinion. I’ve highlighted and italicized the important tidbit

The other day the oil companies recorded the highest profits in the history of the world. I want to take those profits. And I want to put them into a strategic energy fund that will begin to fund alternative smart energy, alternatives and technologies that will actually begin to move us in the direction of independence

Obviously your interpretation of her “taking those profits” means quite a bit in this situation. I don’t really agree with her thought of directly taking the profits but profiteering is killing us all. Taking over an US owned industry would be monumental and could have epic repercussions.

I found a few links to others making arguments for the nationalization of the oil industry - you can check out the arguments at the Huffington Post and at Pww.org

Ok - the bottom line - should we? No - we couldn’t afford to give them adequate compensation. What we should do is to stop all tax subsidies for the oil industry despite the fact that it could cause a short term increase in the price we pay at the pump. We should make a concentrated effort to expand research into alternative energy as we made a national effort to get to the moon in the mid-twentieth century.

The media loves to sensationalize every single thing that might cut your life short at a moments notice. Over the past few years they’ve run the entire gamut. Off the top of my head there is MSRA (staph infection), bird flu, West Nile virus, terrorism, (normal) flu, Africanized bees, pit bulls, overgrown snakes, and SARS.

So lets take a look at the list -

MSRA - MSNBC ran a piece of schlock detailing how your pets could pass the a staph infection to you. This is exactly what we need, millions of geriatrics living in fear of their lap dogs and armies of cats. I can see it now, millions of old people across America are screaming at Fluffy to get away from them. Blue haired and bald people will grab their walkers and canes and rush out the door without remembering to put their teeth in. Old and unable to see over the wheel they take out 3 cars on the way to the pharmacy. Once inside they yell at the top of their lungs for all of the disinfectant, breathing masks, and latex gloves they can find. They aren’t yelling because they need help - they’re yelling because their hearing aids have long since working. The other alternative is that they are yelling because the volume is cranked so high the unit is causing feedback on itself - the poor attendant can only try to understand them as he grits his teeth from the high pitch squelch.

Bird flu - Despite the days spent covering this story only a handful of people have actually contracted this illness. The only one that sticks to the top of my mind is that of a young girl who contracted the disease IN 2006 and later died. It later came out that she was so sad about the death of her favorite chicken that she drug the dead body around and would kiss it. Its no wonder she got the disease - she had no concept of how diseases travel - she couldn’t have known. Her parents should have but not all of us live in a 1st world country - well, we can’t call all of the US a first world country. Trailer parks exist in the southern US (think Florida) where inbreeding and stupidity have risen to epic levels. Three legged troglodyte children run around and eat whatever vermin they can find while yelling that the south will rise again - this rhetoric has been pounded into their heads by the overweight, heavily tattooed, parents who live solely on welfare because the “mexicans” are stealing their jobs.

West Nile virus Human infection is quite rare - in fact the odds of you even catching this disease in 2005 was 1/72,000. The mortality rate was far less - 1/1,724,000. I really done think we have anything to worry about here.

Terrorism - we could go on for DAYS about this one. As Bush says - something something something “or the terrorists will win”. It really doesn’t matter what comes first - it could be something as mundane as “you need to brush your teeth twice a day or the terrorists will win.” It really doesn’t matter - unless you are on patrols in Iraq the odds of the average American dying from a terrorist attack is infinitesimally small. Well, its not really that small but there hasn’t been a major terrorist attack in the US since 9/11 - the odds get smaller with each passing year.

The Flu - Every year millions of young and old are warned about the shortage of the flu vaccine. Every year people flip the hell out. You will probably be fine unless you have an abnormally weak immune system. If the medical system in your country would be ill equipped for an outbreak - say like China - they may shut down your schools if a few children become ill. Yes, the flu is bad this year but its BAD EVERY YEAR!

Africanized bees - this one is seldom talked about because there are very few cases. There was a case in the past week where a mans dog was stung to death. I have a feeling the dog got too close to the bee hive and caused them to react defensively. People shouldn’t go running around in abject terror whenever they see a bee. I’m sure there is someone that put plastic tape over all of their doors and windows when they heard about this threat. I also have a feeling that this person defecates into glass jars and keeps them in their house cuz, ya know, you just might need that jar of urine.

Pit bulls - People train dogs to be aggressive - this breed, in particular, has an extremely strong bite, large size, and is owned by idiots that treat their dogs like hell (Michael Vick?). Any dog can be aggressive - the most aggressive dog also happens to be one of the smallest. Yes, its yo quiero time - the chihuahua.

Overgrown snakes - Jessica can skip this paragraph - I’ve seen quite a few stories about how large snakes are eating household pets in the southern United States. Yippie dogs and cats are the prime targets - meh - let the snakes eat them. It could be that we are destroying their habitat and their food chain forcing them to move. Alternatively, pets could be a far easier prey that have few ingrained fight or flight characteristics and are far better targets. I don’t think we have anything to worry about - unless we get on a plane because there might just be snakes on that plane… yep… snakes on a plane.

SARS - SARS goes hand in hand with the flu - don’t spend your nights treading the carpet bare while worrying about contracting this version of the flu virus. The mortality rate is high - but - a flu epedemic is bound to happen once in a while. Further scientific research will allow us to counter each strain - of course - the SUPERBUG is still out there - we can’t stop that one.

*runs off to build a clean room*

Why would the media make such a big deal out of this stuff? They’ve got 24 hours of programming to fill - and you can only have so many public interest stories… wait… never mind.

You can split it 80/10/9/1
80% sensationalization
10% over analysis
9% public interest
1% real honest to god news

Airborne - how many times have I been told about the wonders of this supplement? People have a manic obsession with it because they believe that it will strengthen their immune system and prevent colds. It is often taken before a trip as a stressful time that is sleep deprived is more likely to bring on a cold as your immune systems weaken.

I’ve always hated holistic cures that have no scientific merit. Sure, this stuff has a bunch of vitamin C but so do oranges. We have not found a cure for the cold and we do not know how to prevent it - all that we do know is that if we wear our immune system down through stress/lack of sleep/change of environment we are more likely to catch a cold.

Well - if you thought airborne was the cure - you were wrong. Turns out there was a class action lawsuit because they’ve been selling a PLACEBO. I think its hilarious - and this is just another time where you were wrong.

Ok - now that you’ve regained your composure and have figured out that I’m messing with you its time for some links.

This guy has zero tact but still tells it like it is. In fact, I would almost wager that he is anti-tact. His best article is where he dissects womens clothing options. Brilliant work (warning: just a bit profane)

This website gives determines your personality based upon the photos you choose. Based on my selections, I have been dubbed a “go getter”

I wrote about my last experience with Nextel thinking that it couldn’t get much worse. Boy - was I wrong!

I called Nextel again and asked to speak to the government account services. I was transfered to customer service elevator music waiting line - I spent 23 minutes on hold before I was disconnected.

I called again and asked for the government account services - the agent on the other end of the line inquired why and I told him that I planned to cancel my account. He immediately retorted that “you’ll be charged with a $200 cancellation fee because your account is valid till Jan 08″ and I explained that I was in the military and that I would be canceling my account in accordance with the military clause. He was disappointed that he couldn’t use fear to make me continue using their service. He was summarily rude from that point on and he placed me on hold for 32 minutes while I waited to be transfered. He came back once or twice, probably hoping that I had hung up the phone in disgust. I was not going to give up on this one - no way in hell.

Eventually I was connected to the correct department and I explained the situation and told her that I had reference numbers for my previous conversations. She wasn’t interested and told me that she would have to look up my account history. It was at this point that she began to lie to me. I wanted to scream “LIAR!” at the top of my lungs but knew that it would do me little good. She told me that they had never received a copy of my orders (even though three agents had previously seen that they had) and that I would have to fax them in. I spoke in a low, clear, tone - much like you would use to explain to a child that their course of action is going to get them into trouble - and told her that faxing another copy was not an option. First, I had previously faxed a copy of the orders. Second, no fax machine is available in this country so I had no method of delivery. I knew this would have been a foolish choice as I would have been forced to fax it, call back and confirm it was received, and then call to cancel on yet another day. They were trying to delay the inevitable. Third, I told her that previous agents had confirmed the receipt of the original fax and that there was no possible way I would resend the information. Four, I had far better things to do than to waste my valuable phone time talking to customer service on an issue I had already called about 7 times.

She placed me on hold.

She came back 10 minutes later and asked if I would like to transfer the line to another family member. I declined.

She asked if I would like to suspend the service in lieu of cancellation. I declined.

She placed me on hold for another 5 minutes.

When she returned she sounded as if she had beaten, she told me that she would cancel the line without a termination fee and that I would owe no more to the company.

She asked if there was anything else she could do. Instead of really laying into the lady for blatantly lying to me I decided to take the high road - she wasn’t prepared for what was about to ensue - it would have been ugly. So, I declined.

I have never had great experience with cell phone contracts - each time I’ve tried to discontinue a service it felt like pulling teeth. Even though I pay more up front to start service without a contract, I think it may be the best option in the future.

I will NEVER use Nextel or Sprint again. Their horrendous customer service practices sour their otherwise adequate cell phone service.

The back story: I called Nextel before I deployed in order to cancel my service - things didn’t go as planned even though they assured me that everything was fine. Jessica notified me that Nextel had sent me a bill in February - I was obviously annoyed so I sent them an email - they ignored my email so I was forced to call them. I called them and things didn’t go as I hoped - read on -

I called Nextel while I was at work today in an effort to get rid of the erroneous charge and cancel my line. I talked to a gentleman in customer service who looked up my account and saw the previous phone conversations where I had requested cancellation of the service, discussed faxing a copy of my orders, called to verify that they had received all of the information required, and checked up to make sure that it was everything was going to be processed. He asked for a phone number so he could call back should we be disconnected - I told him that I was in Iraq - he was instantly nicer to me. He told me that he would see what he could do and asked to place me on hold - I obliged his request. A few minutes later, he told me that he had canceled the charge. He was unsure as to why there was a disconnect within his system because the account SHOULD have been canceled on the billing cycle ending in January. The customer service representative was helpful and polite throughout our conversation - all phone calls to customer service should be modeled on our interaction. Unfortunately, my interaction with Nextel was about to careen of a steep cliff - he told me that I would have to talk to cancellations yet again.
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