Birthday Shenanigans!

Another assignment for my newswriting class. This time to show we can make a slideshow. Too bad I don’t have pictures from the party before this one: A cops showed up due to the music, but then asked if he could play the bass. One of only a handful of decent cops I’ve ever met… and I’ve unfortunately met a lot of cops. Unfortunately, you’ll have to follow the link below, because WordPress doesn’t allow you to post slideshows directly into your blog without some manipulation by the blogger: seriously, how retarded is that?

The New Tobacco Tax: Misguided, Abusive, and an Attack on our Rights– or, Anybody Ready for a New Tea Party?

However you may feel about cigarettes and smoking, the new federal tobacco taxshould appear excessive.

The new tax which will be effective April 1st will increase the price of tobacco by the pound. According to CVS employees and The Pipe Den, a local tobacco store here in Vero Beach, Fl, some companies have already raised the prices for their products and are currently selling them for an exaggerated prices, while the price will go up to around 50 dollars a pound.

I bought one of these such products today: a tin of Bugler tabacco. I began rolling my own cigarettes while living in upstate New York due to the incredibly high taxes there (the highest of all the states); by doing so, I saved a decent amount of money and began smoking less. The price I have typically paid for a tin was around 13-15 dollars; meanwhile the cost I paid today was 32 dollars: that id well over a 100% increase. These taxes will be higher than those I faced in New York!

Apparently, this new tax is a move by Obama to raise money (33 billion) for a new health initiative for children’s health care, with a side gain of increasing the quit rate among tobacco users.

I do not miss the nobility of such a move; however, I feel, it is very misguided. Smokers will not quit simply because the price has gone up– and this is exactly why they expect to obtain 33 billion from this endeavor– for the smoker it is about an addiction that they MUST pacify, whole with withdrawal that is incredibly uncomfortable. Furthermore, there have been studies that have shown that nicotine is a more addictive drug than heroin. Think about it, if the street price of heroin was raised would addicts stop shooting up? Of course not.

Another factor that just sickens me about this is that the prices will be raised to such a ridiculous price, with people left with no choice but to pay, during an economic recession. This doesn’t help anyone: most people are not happy to be smoking, but need to smoke and arguing against this point is null.

Smoking is a bad choice, but at some point it stops becoming a choice and quitting can interfere greatly in ones life (that is, it is important to find a right time to quit that will have a better chance of being successful). Furthermore, multiple relapses are inevitable in most cases so, while quitting and relapsing, the addict must shell out these exorbitant costs.

My last word on this points back to when the tax on tea and other products was once raised in the American colonies by Britain: what did we do then? Or, how about when alcohol was prohibited? The simple fact of the matter, is that the federal government has no right to enforce such an opressive tax. Where is the capitalistic freedom political patriots so often like to tout:  I guess the free market isn’t so free when an individual chooses to freely buy a product some find distateful. Well, I’m sorry but this is self-righteous, especially from a President who used to smoke and still occasionally gets caught doing so.

I’m already hurting in these troubling times. I say we start smuggling and have a new tea party (and by that I mean an illegal act of civil disobedience, not the ordered activism of a group of people who would look at horror upon such an act).

Breeding Dogs to Death

     The BBC recently aired a documentary on the health of dog breeds pedigrees, and criticizes professional dog breeding and showing– especially in Britain and over the last 50 years or so (however, much of the documentary easily applies to breeding and showing here in the States) – as breeding to death, with dog shows as the main cause for such aesthetic breeding. Essentially, the documentary shows how these breeds have changed dramatically over recent decades, and how this aesthetic breeding has caused horrible problems within the general breed; for example, King Cavalier Spaniels with heart disease or skulls to small for their brain causing Syringomyelia (a neurological disorder), Pugs and Bulldogs unable to breath properly (and nothe breeds have not always looked like that), German Shepherds who can’t walk properly due to hipdysplasia, and increases in seizures and cancer in some breeds (especially the Boxer).
     The report claims, among many things, the only 10% of the overall gene pools (from just 40 years ago)for these breeds remains, while the other 90% was lost to unethical inbreeding ( mother to son, and brother to sister). The report states that this is all done in order to over-exaggerate certain characteristics when cosmetically breeding (read: “playing God”): a good example is the fact that Basset Hounds did not have such a short gait, no where near as many wrinkles, and did not have ears that were quite as long as today’s (they looked more like a larger Beagle): the breed now has increased arthritis due to a “deformed” structure. The best scenes, however, are when they show CGI images of the previous bone structures of a breed compared with that of their current structure.
     As a Veterinary Technician I can tell you that I have met many a dog breeder, and am not happy with many of their positions, beliefs, and attitudes; however, I have met very kind, caring, and thoughtful breeders who simply love a particular breed and want to breed their pet to create a better and better bred breed. In my opinion, ignorance is to blame here: I don’t believe many of these people (though some sure are as heartless as the ones portrayed in this documentary) would not be a part of all of this if they truly understood the extent of the genetic manipulation, the effects of said manipulation, and the shallowness of producing genetic defects in order to manipulate and create genetic aesthetics. 
      The BBC video is quite long, but is truly interesting and informative (in fact, in my opinion, it is just this lack of true and honest investigative journalism that is destroying our media– for example, the documentary produced by the BBC critiques the Cruft’s dog show, which is aired yearly by the BBC.) and is a good watch.  Below are posted excerpts from the documentary, and in a following post, I hope to have personal interviews with some professional breeders in order to obtain their viewpoint on this documentary.

 

Report by Christophpissedoff: SIV, monkey vaginas, and the hope for an HIV preventative.

Like my last post, this was done for my news-writing class; however, whereas last time I wrote the piece, this time Dana wrote it and I became the talking head. This is a really awesome piece, very interesting. Apparently, she was trying to get back at me for making her talk about butthash: she’s a really good sport. But in the end, I relish the time in front of a camera where I get to talk about monkey vagina’s. But seriously, this is important stuff. One could point out, though, how horrible it is to purposefully give a primate such a horrible disease. It is in a very real way amoral, and I completely back the ALF (animal liberation front). One the other hand, finding a way to prevent this disease in both our species and theirs would be a great deed, indeed. I’ll let you decide, though.

Report by Dana: Jenkem, or Magic From the Crackpipe.

Many of you may have heard of jenkem. For those of you who have not, it is a new drug that may or may not really exist, is horribly foul, and should by no means ever be tried…ever. But if you are insane and deficient enough, by all mean have fun! And send me a video.

MMO’s and FPS’s: when harrasment goes right, a look on the other hand.

     There are some incredibly hilarious forms of harassment in on-line games. Talking smack is a national pastime and appropriate for war games: particularly when someone is acting ridiculous and you and all of your friends just attack them with witty insults… have you ever made a kid cry? I have… It was wondrous.   What!?!         He deserved it, kid had a mouth.
     Anyway, my favorite type of harassment is the use of soundboards and the application of a little computer know how. This often takes place over proprietary voice over Internet protocols  such as Ventrilo or TeamSpeak, that allow members of the same team to communicate with each other in-game over the net. This is used for such games such as World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and Counter Strike.  On a private “vent” that is controlled by an individuals personal server (and can be password protected), these mischievous Pucks gain access and make copies of the users profiles (mirrors) so that they can never be “kicked” from the room and to avoid be “muted”. Sometimes they even record the voices of the people they are harassing to mock them. Here are my favorite examples:

MMO’s and FPS’s:Massively-Mysogynistic Online Games

     The average male adult hardcore gamer hopes for one thing in life: to find an interesting, intelligent, and attractive woman who is into video games (whatever they may be: full-tilt poker, solitaire, arcade games, cooking mama for the DS, Wiisports– or…  *gasp* RPG’s and the occasional first-person shooter).  Even better would be, such a woman who is also a hardcore gamer that can sit on the couch with you for 12 hours throughout the newest video game’s entire campaign…. on veteran or insane mode!  Ahhhhh… it is an admirable dream. Unfortunately we despair in our futile attempts to fulfill our fantasies.
      But why is this, when recent reports are showing that female gamers are on the rise. The BBC reports “nearly 40 percent of [the people] who play games on-line, specifically of the MMO-RPG(games like World of Warcraft, it stands for massively-multiplayer on-line role playing game) variant, are in fact female. Another report,the Neilsen ”Active Gamer Benchmark” study, determined that there is currently 117 million gamers who play video games on a consistent basis in the United States. While 70%  are male overall, however, when considering only on-line gaming (more than half of the total),  62 percent were women– almost 2/3. Furthermore, with the NPD reporting that out of 20,240 individuals that were surveyed for their study 72 percent played a game in 2007, up from 8 percent the previous year, and around 50 percent of these gamers have at some point played a game on-line, our chances should be quite good of obtaining our ambitions…
     There is only one problem: the behavior typical of male hardcore gamers. Sure, there is the swarm of the prepubescent, the adolescent stoners, and your basic universal do*****ag, but there is something about having a headset, a controller: the ability communicate to (interact) kill that can sometimes bring out the worst in us. Oh, not to mention the ability to take photos through something like (Xbox360) Live Vision, check this out: 

 

 
Yes, this actually happened. You see, much like the happenings in Internet interactions, on-line gaming is often reduced to a gang of retarded friends  doing things that they think is funny but ruins everyone else’s fun. When you add a female gamer into the equation, it sets off some kind of weird hormonal reaction, and everyone goes crazy, and people get harassed. Way to go get ‘er cowboy! I have one friend, married female, who never uses her own profile on-line, but that of her husband’s because she gets too many messages and pictures from guys on-line. I also have a few more female gamers I play with on Call of Duty: World at War who have been harassed time and time again.[Hopefully, in the upcoming weeks , I will have interviews completed with these three youg woment] This is simply pathetic, and to those of you out there who do these things: great idea in the abstract when your stoned and drunk and talking -ish on-line, pullin’ people’s tits and what not, however, not in action. Stop the bull***t people. …Sigh.

Riot Porn

Riot porn is video footage or photographs taken during protests and riots from around the world.  They are often violent images taken typically after police brutality has occurred; however, many images are of  violence on the part of protesters– usually towards public/private/police property. It is also a great example of independent journalism: these protests are often unreported (or hidden away in on page A28 without an image) and so the activists do the job themselves. It helps that the images are graphic and emotional, getting a point across while using little words;however, they are often present in blogs devoted to the subject.Furthermore, there are available movies of riot porn collections for sale through activist publishers and distros.  Molotovs, burning cars, tossing tear gas back at the riot police, police batons,  spitting out blood and teeth, broken ribs,  concussions, and the occasional sweet shot back ensues…

!!!!WARNING!!!!: the following are examples of what you would see in a riot porn video, some of this material is graphic (not really: more politically offensive to some, the videos can get quite graphic with a mixture of sad and exhilarating.)
                                                                                                With that said, Enjoy!

Nuclear Bar-B-Q: want some mercury on that?

Opponents of Florida Power and Light- GO TO JAIL!
South Florida environmentalist sentenced to 60 days and 30 days in the Palm Beach County Jail for protesting FPL

For those who don’t know what FPL is(from OrlandoSentinel. com):
FPL Group is an energy company with two main subsidiaries, Florida Power & Light Co. and FPL Energy Inc. It has revenues of close to $16 billion annually and has a presence in 26 states. A third subsidiary, FPL FiberNet, provides cable and fiber-optic services to telecommunications companies. FPL Group’s Florida Power & Light subsidiary is the largest investor-owned utility in Florida. In 2007, FPL announced plans to build the world’s largest solar-power plant. The company owns nuclear plants in four states.

I origionally read about this due to the Earth Liberation Front, along w/ information on how to write to and support these two dissenting patriots; however Earth First! mainly organized the event.

After being found guilty of misdemeanor trespassing, blocking traffic in an act of civil disobedience during the February 2008 protest against Florida Power Light’s West County Energy Center, Lynne Purvis and Panagioti Tsolkas are sentenced to 30 and 60 days in jail. Their protest in February 2008 shut down Southern Boulevard for hours and prompted a special force of an estimated 100 sheriff’s deputies to respond.

During their court case, Purvis and Tsolkas argued that the environmental damages caused by FPL’s power plant necessitated non-violent civil disobedience.

Scientists Dr. John van Leer and Dr. Sydney Bachus testified in defense of Purvis and Tsolkas, arguing that the completion of the FPL West County Energy Center could lead to higher levels of Mercury in the Loxahatchee Preserve area and aquifer contamination; in addition to the acceleration of global warming. The State Attorney’s Office contested the environmentalists’ claims, arguing that proposed power plant impact on global warming was not an imminent threat.

Once open, the Florida Power and Light West County Energy Center will be the largest fossil fuel burning power plan in the United States, emitting twelve million tons of potentially toxic carbon emissions and dispensing 13.5 million gallons of contaminated water into Florida’s aquifer every year.

In addition to jail, Judge Johnson sentence restrains Purvis and Tsolkas from coming within 500 feet of FPL property. Both remain committed to protecting Palm Beach County’s natural resources.

Co-defendant Russell McSpadden responded to the Judge’s sentence stating, “The FPL West County Energy Center poses an imminent and severe threat to our quality of life in Palm Beach County. We are dissapointed with the Judge’s decision to jail environmental activists who took action to stop FPL from contaminating the air and water of Palm Beach County. We believe during this time of global climate change that average citizens must step up and take action to address the impacts large corporations are having on our environment.”

The Palm Beach Post quoted Lake Worth Commissioner Cara Jennings as saying  ”It’s unheard of … jail time! Don’t forget these are misdemeanors, they clearly don’t want people protesting in Palm Beach County.”

I think that any person who truly respects the ideals of the old revolutionary America, would be paying attention to these kinds of happenings: the times are different (by far), but the bulls*** is similar, if not just the same.

The Appalachian Trail

  This summer,  I have the opportunity to go hiking in the southern tip (Georgia) of the Appalachian Trail. I am very exited to have this chance to retire from civilization for a week and take up adventure in nature.  It is also a challenge for a reader, gamer, and iremovie collector; true, I once skated (skateboard) almost every day from the time I was 15 until I moved to Boca Raton at 20. Unfortunately, I have slacked-off a bit much since then (not to mention the abuse of youthful partying over the years), and am now in a decrepit state. I am also excited to have this time for meditation, away from my gadgets (car, computer, t.v., phone, xbox, etc.), with friends, and  considering the harmony in nature. Most importantly, I’ll get above sea level and walk along elevated and declining terrain: Yes!, away from flatland Florida. Hello, three-dimensions!

My hope is to seek some balance in my life, to purify myself, and return renewed. I am currently drying out a cut down and skinned branch,  to turn into an hiking stick tall enough for my 6’1″ self.