kd1s's Comments (43)

“Come on, come and get my laptop. Plug it into your device and watch as it shreds everything it can touch. DECAF baby, DECAF!”

“I propose this solution. Change the 14th Amendment to say that the rights enumerated only apply to natural persons. Once corporations are stripped of their alleged constitutional rights we might get this country back on its feet.”

“Uh oh, some friends and I would be in real trouble if asked to remove pants. The current security policy is just that side of stupid.”

“I just did preliminary calcs based on my salaries over the year. In almost every scenario I'd be paying over $1,000 per month or $12,000 a year for health insurance to cover my family.

The 2% IRS fine comes out to about $1,200 to $2,000 per year. I'll take the government ransom instead o paying the criminals at the insurance companies that kind of money. And Senator Kirk needs to shut his trap. This isn't real reform, this is a money grab by the insurance industry.

Hopefully more people will pay the fine than buy the insurance thereby sending a message to our government that we want single payer universal health care.”

“What glitch in Arizona law lets an elected sheriff get away with these shenanigans?

It's clear that Arpiao is lashing out and trying to protect someone or something.”

“Yes, we do need to move to a post racist society. It makes no sense to be racist. People are judged on their merits, not on their appearance. I've run into that time and again in my career.

One that springs to mind, when I started as I.T. Director at the Dept of Attorney General. I was told that the young black woman was a problem. It took less than two weeks for me to figure out what the real problem was.

The real problem? A 40 year old white woman. Here's what I found, give the younger woman a job to do and she'd do it. The older woman would throw up roadblocks. I also found out the older woman was the one who started the rumor that the younger woman was trouble.

The reality, the older woman was threatened by an intelligent young woman who just happened to be black. But race wasn't the deciding factor, because I knew the younger woman could do the job, and that the older woman was just waiting it out.

So if you're ever in a supervisory position and told someone is a problem, investigate. Don't take them at their word.”

“Now it's becoming clear why she stepped down as Governor of Alaska. This was going to blow up in her face if she didn't. But since we're now seeing a rebuttal of Going Rogue, I suspect that book is going on the remainder shelves soon!”

“It's not just in airports. This is the concept of the up-sell. I note the Walgreens near me has 'specials' at the register that they HAVE to offer. It's usually some kind of candy or cookie treat but still, it's irritating.

Same is true when dealing with broadband and cable tv providers, can we up-sell you to this package that is going to cost you $20 a month more. I know people who are paying upwards of $140 a month for phone, cable, and 2 digital tv boxes. Me, I ditched the CATV side and the phone service comes through different VoIP providers. $85 a month total. With net video I'm not missing much.”

“I am all for holding Obama's feet to the fire. Don't go saying you're a fierce advocate and then backpedal. And quite honestly I'm not very please with the Democratic party over these past years. It's become increasingly more apparent that they're bought and paid for, just like the Republicans.

Lets dump our money into a NEW political party that isn't beholden to the corporate interests. Then maybe we can make some progress.”

“I really think we are on the precipice of great advances in medicine and therefore the extension of human lifespans. Newer technology is constantly improving too. It's been the collision of science and computing that really lead us here.”

“I really don't know any of my neighbors. I live in an area that has a highly transient population. It isn't worth knowing.”

“Heavy lift is a must but lets toss some $$$ at VASIMR technology. You know, the one that is estimated to be able to get us to Mars withing 39 days instead of six or more months using standard lift vehicles. In fact the VASIMR technology could be used for 120 day missions to what, Europa, Io, et al. Wouldn't that be grand.”

“Very good analysis of what is going on in the United States at the moment. I want the Democratic party to slide left and stop trying to be just like the Republicans.

But I know that will never happen. Or at least it won't happen until we assert ourselves as citizens and once and for all tell the corporations that we are not theirs to control.

You really want to modify a constitution, insert these words in the 14th Amendment "These rights do not apply to corporations." Seven simple words but it would change the whole political environment.

We can do it, the Obama camp showed us how with one of the best fund raising machines ever. Except we the people do our own, and get our own people obligated to us alone into office. We can do it, and we'll have to pay for it but the payoff is immeasurable.”

“It is my fondest wish for a secular state to flourish in Iran. Oppressive government never lasts for long and fortunately for Iran the cycle took less than 50 years for it to happen.

Democracy can work in Persia, but the U.S. cannot force it to happen. It has to come from the people and that surely seems to be the case in Iran.”

“I like the idea of a national strike. I've long known that corporations control government.

Here's my proposal, lets put our money where our mouth is. Lets finance candidates who are beholden to "We the people" and then make a very simple change to the U.S. Constitution. In the 14th Amendment just insert a half dozen words or so that unequivocally state that the rights enumerated by the Constitution and its amendments apply only to flesh and blood beings.”

“I'm becoming very disillusioned with Obama. Candidate Obama was the crusader for change, for reform, for civil rights. Now we're being told to wait, wait, wait.

No more. I won't wait while my civil rights are in jeopardy or while health care is a rigged game.”

“As a gay man I'm very disappointed in President Obama over his handling of DADT and DOMA.

These are areas where he could act decisively but he doesn't want the stain of appearing to be gay supportive to become an issue. For crying out loud, he gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two gay people, one posthumously but still.

He needs to push congress on this. We have the Democratic majority necessary so lets do some good things before the Republican echo chamber gets neo-cons re-seated in 2012 or later.”

“It's the old misdirection trick writ large.

I think we need to start taking out tv and radio transmission towers. Start with Fox News, get rid of their satellite uplinks and terrestrial links. Not hard to find if you look for them.
Make them mute.

Purchase the TV-B-Gone kit and turn off any television playing Fox News.

Silence them.”

“Now this is interesting. It wouldn't surprise me if our congressmen were being bribed on a regular basis. They just invent new laws to cover themselves.”

“So good to see humanity shine! For all the vitriol and hatred spewed by some Christians, Munoz not only talks the talk, but walks the walk.

I'm the cynical old bastard. I get involved with political causes.”

“As a database pro I can tell you that the electronic systems will give us one bit of leverage. You can use data mining to extract redundant procedures, or maybe look at outcome vs. treatment and identify the most effective modes of treatment.

Computers have come a very long way, and so too have business intelligence systems.”

“In essence, we're paying for all the hangers on and sycophants.

Look at the health care debacle. You now have full integration between banks and insurance companies. That was a bad idea from the start because the prime motivation of a bank is to make money.

Then look at the plethora of insurers out there now. It got so bad that practitioners couldn't manage to do their own billing so they had to hire billing companies.

A few years back I worked for the state AG's office. Seems there was one doctor who was up-coding all his Medicare patient visits. We had a horrible time trying to get the data from the billing company. They came to a meeting with their IT Director and put on a dog and pony show that they only held 3 months of data.

We managed to get the data and prove that the doctor was doing the up-coding to cover an IRS debt. Packaged it up and gave it to the federal prosecutors.

Years later their I.T. Director puts his resume in for a position at the state agency I was working for at the time. We brought him in for an interview during which he sweat bullets. I lobbied hard to bring him in because he had the skill set we were seeking.

He later admitted to me that the company management had told him to lie at the meeting.”

“Very good analysis. However I don't think we'll ever see the industry backing off the current scheme of 'hard shoves'. After all, they're out to make examples of people.

It just fails miserably. I'm not sure what the solution is, I kind of liked the ISP applying say a $5 per month surcharge on all subscriber bills that allow you to legally download all the music/video you like. For $60 a year I'd go for it.

Or how about charging only $0.25 to $0.50 for tracks on iTunes and the like?

Once pricing comes to a realistic level maybe people will stop pirating.”

“Ok, all well and good. This is very similar to the systems in other countries. But I'd want to see a catastrophic level added too, say $20 a month and covers specialists, surgeons, etc.”

“And I just bet we're going to see an attendant uptick in pregnancies in a little under a year. Good times!”