Thomas Jefferson: Unfit Juror in New America

Tuesday 26 February 2008 at 01:15 am Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and all their freethinking rebellious cohorts wouldn't recognize the United States of the Twenty-first Century. Contrary to delusional Christian distortions, this country was founded upon principles of freethought, questioning Authority when Authority's ethics and reason proved wanting, disobeying the prevailing rule of law, and even fomenting rebellion when Authority remained deaf to reason. In this Century, Jefferson would find it a very alien land, hostile to him and his freethinking brethren in disobedience. Atheists, freeethinkers and even agnostics are feared, disrespected, and sometimes despised. In that vein, today I was removed from jury service for questioning and refusing to blindly obey what is clearly an ethically dubious law, the so-called felony murder rule. It doesn't help that standard courtroom practice now admonishes jurors not to educate themselves about any issues concerning a case outside of the explicit control in the courtroom. In my instance, having openly questioned this law in court, both judge and council outright refused my request for information about the history and justification of this law. In effect, I was told to mindlessly obey this unjustified edict from an Authority on high in the execution of my service as a juror deciding the fate of two other human beings. I felt as if I was once again five years old and back in my parents' home, being admonished to do what I was told "because we're your parents and we say so." (more)

Unlimited Consumer Stupidity

Wednesday 20 February 2008 at 11:40 pm

Have you seen the television commercials?  Sprint is screaming from the rooftops that they now offer unlimited text-messaging as an addition to cellphone service for only twenty US dollars a month extra.  Woo-hoo!

How can Americans possibly be such stupid consumers that they would agree to such gratuitous blackmail?  How could they be so ignorant of a product or service they use that they don't realize this is merely an extension of the same economic violation that has been ongoing since the inception of text messaging?  Does it really require an advanced education to realize that text messaging - even the cumulative weight of ALL the texting in the United States - places virtually no significant load on Sprint's or any other cellular network?  Why does such an insignificant expense command a premium, almost as much as the most basic cellular service itself?

Text messaging is the the cellular industry's equivalent of fries and a coke: pure profit.  Why the hell would anyone pay a premium to "supersize" either, when they should be getting them virtually for free?  You'd think Americans would eventually learn and grow more skeptical, but they haven't and don't.  God help consumers of the rest of the world if they're just as ignorant.

A Tale of Interconnectedness

Sunday 10 February 2008 at 8:53 pm

1. Humans discover that a funky arthropod is handy for IV drug testing and fish (eel) bait.

2. Humans behave like a virus (again), abusing the arthropod like there's no tomorrow and as if they magically fall from the sky like manna from Heaven whenever they're needed.

3. Arthropod numbers decline by 75%, but nobody even notices.

4. A small migratory bird species, useless to humans as a resource, then suddenly begins to decline by 70% in a span of five years.

5. Humans finally discover the two extinction events are connected, and that (once again) human activity is responsible.

Economic Fictions

Friday 08 February 2008 at 10:46 am Congressperson Doris Matsui (D-CA) seems to be one of the vast multitude who has bought into the fictions of our current economic system, one of the people who serves to prop up and perpetuate it through greed or simple ignorance.  What follows is the latest e-letter from her office and my reply to it.

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