We’re Screwed…

It’s the 5^th of November in the year 2020.  We’re still in the middle of the latest madness that this year has had in store for us – the election of the next set of morons that we are choosing to ride this nation further into the void that this two and a half century old failed experiment has become.  Nothing makes sense anymore.  The most overwhelming condition present in modern America is hatred – pure, unbridled hatred.  They hate us and we hate them.  The two co-existing worlds of the “us” and “them” are now seen as stark photo-negatives of each other.  There is no overlap.

The “Blue Wave” seen as both imminent and necessary by the half of this country that still posses a conscience, once again, did not materialize.  Although some progress – substantially less than what was needed – came back in the now basically forgotten 2018 mid-terms, we’re currently watching a re-run of the joke that was 2016.  It is slightly different this time and might even end up with the correct outcome for the executive office although that won’t matter as the House and Senate don’t appear to be changing colors and we all know how well that worked the last time we had an actual human in the role of POTUS.  We are doomed either way.

It is looking like this airing of the shitshow that was 2016 is a special edition, however.  This year is a collaboration with an earlier disaster known as 2000.  “The 2020 Election – watch as the disappointment of 2016 is mixed in with the pure non-democratic legal shenanigans of 2000.  This’ll be the show that nobody can miss!  It’s gonna fuck your life up for the foreseeable future.”

This whole mess could have been avoided.  This whole mess should have been avoided.  I wonder what the world would be like today if the 45^th president’s last name was “Clinton?”  That almost happened – the majority of this nation’s population voted for that.  What if it was “Sanders?”  Could you imagine?  Oh, the horrors – every citizen getting treated as a citizen by the government regardless of race, free health care, honest pay for honest work, a functional government using expert advice in decision making – I mean that’s crazy.  What are we?  Human beings?

I wonder where we would be if we had a former President Gore?  There’s a case study to contemplate.  I’m not exactly sure what today would look like in that situation although I honestly do believe this country would be in a much better place.

Granted these “what if” scenarios are nothing more than pure speculation.  What we are seeing now is the “what happened” scenario and it sucks.  Why are so many people – damn near half of this nation – okay with this?  I’ve got a theory…

I was noticing in the various exit polls that the problem appears to be with religious, less educated, married, white conservatives.  They’re showing in this current election that they’re happy with the way things are.  I’m thinking that every one of those adjectives is, in a way, a limitation.  If not an explicit limitation of life, a limitation on thinking the least bit progressively.  Their situation in life puts them in a social class that, by definition, fears change.  Any change this group wants is to go backwards in time and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

I suppose the problem here is that nobody has figured out a way to successfully convince this group that change can be good.  If the last four years of seeing a clown-car full of buffoons destroying our once great nation hasn’t snapped that point home, I have no idea what could.  Perhaps a civil war?  It seems like that’s what these idiots are hoping for.

Oh, and by the way, I do not believe ultra-douche had COVID.  It was a stunt to show the cretins that like him that he’s untouchable.  Either that or his wealth-care provided him far better treatment than the normal Joe would ever get.  He did get tested constantly – I’m sure catching it quickly helped … IF he even had it.  Why couldn’t he have died…?

bis später,

Coriolis

Karma’s Return

Everything is a lie ... everything.

This country – “The Land of the Free,” that’s been implanted in our psyche since forever (considering everybody’s personal forever is equivalent to said person’s existence; and, if you were born in the states – the “united” ones, that is – this false designation has been pounded into your head since you’ve been able to retain thoughts ... but I digress – perhaps there’ll be more on that later...) – is all bullshit.  You’re not free.  Never have been; never will be.  There are some that are, but you aren’t one of ‘em.  At best, “they” are letting you exist.  We’re all slaves.

I’m sitting here at “work” writing this article.  I am not a writer and am not supposed to be writing articles at work – that’s not what they (hmm? ... there’s that “they” again...) pay me for; however, due to bureaucratic circumstances and a plethora of red-tape, I’m currently unable to log-in to the company I’m currently working with’s network.  That makes it impossible for me to do any actual work.  Not that I have any actual work to do as the work I needed to do was completed prior to my getting locked out of the system – quite lucky for the team I’m working with although it will never be realized by those in charge ... bad work gets noticed; good work is almost always undetectable.  As of now though, my fallback routine of “creating” work to do in order to pass the time is not even available.  So, I have time to kill.

So, as I was saying, we are all slaves.  Was reading this article in The Seattle Times reporting on how many passengers weren’t very happy about long bus rides caused by the “Seattle Squeeze” construction.  I haven’t been living here that long and don’t even use public transportation (Meant to and even purchased an Orca card shortly after obtaining my apartment; however, it has never been used.  My limited existence consists of being either at my apartment or at work and, since I chose to get an apartment with easy driving access to work, that’s what I do.) so I’m not exactly sure what the scale of the “Seattle Squeeze” is.  This one particular paragraph, however, got me thinking...

“Now that my bus commute time has doubled, there is no way for me to spend eight hours on the clock at work, pick up my daughter in West Seattle on time, and avoid the $1/minute late fee the day care charges,” Lynne wrote in an email. She now works through lunch to leave earlier and still ends up doing some work in the evenings at home, she said.

That is so American.  Most specifically, the “spend eight hours on the clock at work” sentence.  The thing is that we’ve somehow decided that, in order to – I don’t know ... “justify”, perhaps? – that we should be allowed to live, we need to forfeit eight hours of five days each week pretending to be productive.  Hell, lately those 40-hour work weeks are often not enough - with the current costs of housing and basic living expenses, many are forced to work multiple jobs just to pay the bills.  But it’s all bullshit.

The strangest thing about it is that “they” aren’t in this trap.  “They” do basically nothing.  “They”, however, have arranged it so that “they” have complete control over distribution of resources to us – the slaves.  Have you ever realized that the jobs that actually require somebody to be actively working for eight hours a day are the ones that “they” pay the least for?  The “professionals” working the high-pay jobs are working far less than those grinding through minimum-wage jobs day in and day out.  I know this – I am a professional.  I’m also currently writing this article while on the clock.  This, however, is not my job.

Okay, so everything above was written a bit over a year ago.  Never bothered completing nor posting this rambling as I do realize that nobody reads my blog anymore.  I do, however, find it interesting that the point I was trying to get to last year has basically been proven without any doubt this year – the year that has become analogous to pure madness – 2020.

Early this morning, the douchebag that this country was stupid enough to actually allow obtain the title of POTUS “tweeted” (that’s right, this asshat “tweets”) that he and his wife tested positive for COVID-19.  This, my friends, was the best news I’ve heard in a long time.  I’ve been wondering what happened to karma – seems like somebody’s been holding her hostage for quite a while now.  Looks like she’s making some progress at escaping.  I’m all for her returning fully and will welcome her back with open arms when that motherfucker dies.  Oh, please let him die!

You see, the “they”s that I was speaking of last year are the only people that modern-day Republicans are willing to recognize as humans and try to help.  “They” don’t need any help.  The important people have been identified this year – the ones doing the needed work.  The ones that made it possible for us to survive this pandemic even when we needed to go into lockdown.  The saddest thing about all this is that this country is still not realizing what’s actually important.  And why is that?  Because about a third of this country is fucking retarded.  If you took offense to that statement, I hate to say it but you’re one of those.

These cretins that are currently in charge are masters at creating blatant falsehoods that only a retard would fall for; yet a full one third of this country’s population eats up this bullshit hook, line and sinker.  It’s amazing to me.  Science – the only reason why we, as a species, have been able to obtain a higher standard of living as opposed to your common dung beetle – is seen by these retards as “fake news” that should be ignored; not only ignored but abhorred.  The piece of shit now living in quarantine at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. did everything he could to make sure that his kin – both figuratively and literally – remained in control of the retards being force-fed the bullshit.  Now he very well could die directly because of this.  Kismet.

Unfortunately, even if we are lucky enough for the over-sized, orange, baby-man to get his comeuppance and finally stop breathing, it still won’t be enough to solve the problems that he has created.  Ideally Pence would quickly succumb to the VID and Pelosi would get the opportunity to pick a replacement for The Notorious RBG.  Could you imagine how pissed that would make the tortoise?  I can dream, can’t I?

bis später,

Coriolis

Hey Car ... Kill Me

Has this world – or, at least, this country – lost its mind completely?  With all this investment that many companies are putting into autonomous (aka “self-driving”) cars these days, I’m going with an answer of “Hell yeah!”  Let’s step out of the Jetsons bubble … oh wait, the Jetsons, a cartoon from the 1960’s mind you, aren’t even absurd enough to have George mindlessly abandon all control of his car – a flying one at that – to the unknown whims of said vehicle…  I guess we need to step out of the Google bubble to actually discuss the pure absurdity that truly autonomous vehicles would be.  I’ll lead the way; come along and join me.

For starters, when was the last time you eagerly threw down way too much money for the latest, greatest piece of technology; brought said purchase home; eagerly tore through the packaging and were delighted to have this new, “can’t live without” toy work flawlessly as expected upon its first boot?  “Never” is the word you’re looking for here; and that’s because in today’s world nothing technologically advanced enough to become a needed life changer is ever really complete.  What we always get is, at best, a beta version released to the public in an effort to avoid financial collapse of a company that has already spent multiple times the estimated development cost pulled out of thin air by said company’s marketing department back when the initial idea of the product being developed was nothing more than a brain-fart in some forward-looking engineer’s mind.  Any bugs that still exist can be fixed with future software updates.  Just look at the amount of updates that are constantly being delivered to your PC’s operating system; your cell phone; your watch!  (Well, “your” watch I’m guessing as I have not bought into – nor will ever buy into – the idea that I need to have a doppelganger of my cell phone strapped to my wrist. The effort it takes to slide my existing cell phone from my back pocket isn’t that cumbersome…)  And it’s perfectly fine to be running advanced beta versions of software on a computer or phone, but a freaking automobile?  I think not!

“It’s a shame that your daughter was killed by your car but I’ve heard that the next update is going to fix that bug.  In fact, rumor has it that you’ll also be getting a 10 MPG increase in fuel economy; so that’s good.”  Could you imagine…?

I mean just contemplate the seemingly endless variables that we would be relying on programs to be able to deal with.  You’ve got a several thousand pound mass capable of reaching speeds greater than 100 MPH traveling on a multitude of surfaces.  Inside said mass is you; your friends; maybe even your family.  Outside said mass is the world and everything that the freaking world contains.  The first thing that needs to be done is that we need to have these vehicles selectively start to ignore things.  It’s done by having these vehicles sense things nearby.  Yeah, it’s a race to have one company’s vehicle able to sense more than its competitors; however the truth of what’s happening here is that each company is really making a decision as to what their car is going to be ignoring.  Let’s hope that all the companies working on these cars choose wisely.  Let’s also hope that the devices used to sense things work flawlessly.  Oh wait, what am I thinking?  I’ve never had to repair any malfunctioning parts on any car I’ve ever owned.  They’ve always worked exactly the same as the day I drove them off the lot.

And, in today’s world of ever-growing legal dockets, who do we blame for the accidents that are sure to ensue after literally millions of these soulless beasts are set free upon the roads?  Do we go after the owners of these cars?  The manufacturers?  The governmental entities that were stupid enough to allow this madness to even happen?  That’ll be a mess for sure.  I foresee customers being forced to sign away legal rights during purchase much like HOAs currently force homebuyers to sign now.  People will need to procure the services of a notary public, sit down with their salesman and sign several papers of legalese in order to be allowed to have their new car drive them home.  Well hidden in these documents will be multiple statements alleviating both the manufacturer and sales entities from any and all future lawsuits brought forth from the destruction caused by the vehicle being purchased.  At least that way nobody will have to worry about company profits getting affected by anything as silly as people getting killed.

If only there were an alternative way to allow people to get from one place to another that didn’t require us to risk our lives on whether or not our car’s software was 100% bug-free, all possible variables were contemplated and covered in the coding of this software and all hardware associated with the correct execution of this code was working flawlessly … if only…

bis später,

Coriolis

There Really Oughtn’t

I hate people.

Okay, so that statement might be taken the wrong way by many – oh wait, that statement most definitely will be taken the wrong way. Whatever… The fact of the matter is that I, for one, have basically reached the end of my line when it comes to the myriad of idiots in our society these days. And I’m not about to claim that I am smarter than everyone else – far from it! What I am wondering is exactly how have we (the “normal” people) let the admittedly few douche-bags of society have so much power? Or perhaps – as usually seems to be the case – I’m wrong here. I doubt it, but I suppose it’s possible. Hear me out on this…

As I’m sure many of you already know, Penn and Teller have this wonderful show on Showtime named, aptly enough, “Bullshit!” Seeing as I decided long ago not to spend money on any of your premium cable channel offerings (it just seemed like a waste of money to me), it wasn’t until late last year that I stumbled on this show using the rather recently introduced “Instant View” feature on Netflix. Once I discovered it though, I was hooked. Finally! Somebody out there is asking the correct questions and basically showing these scam artists for what they are. Unfortunately, the more I watched, the more I realized what the actual problem is – your average Joe Schmo (at least the one’s living in America today) is more than willing to throw away any and all common sense for the opportunity to believe pretty much anything. If the bullshit were true, life would seem better; therefore people relish the idea of taking blind faith in the bullshit. Whatever happened to demanding proof? Have we honestly turned into a society where belief in ideas has become more important than the search for truth?

And what the fuck is with this latest rash of husbands going to rehab for “sex addiction”? Come on … sex addiction?! Are you kidding me?? There is no such thing as sex addiction. What’s next? We’re going to be treating people for oxygen addiction or food addiction (oh wait, that second one already exists…)? I hate to say it, but if the male of our species weren’t “addicted” to sex, you and I (and pretty much the entire human population) probably wouldn’t be here. The problem is not that these guys have an addiction; it’s that they have a penis. Personally, I consider these guys weak. I’ve written about this before and my opinion remains unchanged. Society attempting to justify infidelity as a disease, however, is pure bullshit.

But that’s what we’re looking for, right? – A way to justify our actions without having to actually legitimize them. That way we can do whatever we want and pass any consequences onto somebody else. For these “sex addicts”, it’s not their fault – they’re the real victims here. I guess if they did the impossible and didn’t sleep around on their wives they might have had to suffer blue balls for a bit. Sure, they could easily alleviate this on their own (it’s called masturbation and man has been doing it since man has been…); but I guess that’s too much to ask of these alpha males. No … it’s far better to give them a pass and let them do what they do so well – it’s not like they’ve promised not to do it… Marriage, after all, is such a dated concept.

Then there’s this new fad (and “fad” is how I would best describe it) where peer groups and, even more disturbingly, school officials are being blamed for teenage suicides. Now I understand how somebody committing suicide always has a devastating effect on those that loved them; however when was it decided that the best way to deal with these tragedies was to find somebody else to blame? We’ve all been teenagers. We all know what teenagers need to go through. For those that forgot, it’s called “growing up”. Each of us had our own unique experiences during this period and each of us found ways to cope. Unfortunately, this journey is more difficult for some; but that’s life. Holding friends (or enemies) and teachers responsible when a teenager fails to cope accomplishes nothing more than passing the feeling of failure (because I’m sure that’s what the parents feel) onto somebody else.

So what we end up with is kids being punished for being kids and adults being punished for not being able to see the future. And how, exactly, should we punish these (what should I call them?) “accomplices” for the extremely vague crime that they are supposedly guilty of? Throw ‘em in jail, perhaps? Oh, I know, let’s make the school pay millions of dollars to the kid’s parents – that’s almost as good as a resurrection I suppose… After all, the kid would still be alive if the school did its job … right?

But that’s not exactly what I’m on about and before I get too far off subject, let me return. The point I am eager to get out there is that people need to stop taking often asinine claims as truth based purely on faith. And yes, I include all religions in this basket as well. We are currently living in the most scientifically advanced era that this blue-green sphere we have chosen to call Earth has ever seen. Why, I ask, are so many people almost eager to ignore basically everything we’ve learned to get us here? Fear of the unknown is no excuse to act like a lemming…

I watched the latest episode of South Park last night – the “Medicinal Fried Chicken” episode – and almost died laughing. That show always does a wonderful job of pointing out the absurdity of our culture, usually in an even more absurd way – men purposely contracting prostate cancer in order to legally purchase weed … classic… This is yet one more example of what I am getting at. I’ve been to Amsterdam. I lived for nine months in Germany where (and I doubt many of you are aware of this) it is perfectly okay to posses up to 10g of marijuana for your personal use. They understand the dangers (or lack there of) associated with letting people smoke grass if they so choose. However here, in the “land of the free”, you’re not allowed to – although, in more and more states, this restriction is only being placed on healthy people. Now how stupid is that…?

And it all goes back to somebody, somewhere, insisting that some fact existed (smoking marijuana is a “gateway drug” for instance – that always cracks me up…) supporting whatever agenda (usually religious – always about controlling others…) they want to push. What this oftentimes results in is a loss of freedom and it’s looking more and more like nobody cares. The anti-smokers out there have basically outlawed smoking (any and all, not just pot) in pretty much any public area (if this hasn’t hit where you live yet, just wait – it will) using lies. They blatantly over-exaggerate the effects of breathing secondhand smoke to make it seem like this nuisance to them is life threatening for all. It’s not and nobody is insisting that anybody stay in an uncomfortable environment – I’m sure nobody would miss these tight-ass, presumptuous kill-joys if they decided to leave the bar… But making it illegal for all to smoke … isn’t that going a bit too far…?

I don’t know … perhaps I’m missing something here. Did I miss the meeting where it was decided that everybody should stop considering others and just assume that whatever belief system they’ve decided to subscribe to is the only valid viewpoint that exists, even when this system is based on nothing more than pure faith? As Penn Jillette so often puts it, “When somebody says ‘there ought to be a law,’ there probably oughtn’t.”

bis später,

Coriolis

Last Call!

So I watched the “State of the Union” speech yesterday. Somebody fill me in on something – when was having our national representatives act like a bunch of prepubescent children chosen as a good way to convey the current mindset of our country? I mean seriously … why can’t these idiots at least act like full grown adults for the time it takes to have a speech read to them? And I’m not just talking about the purposely vague cat-calls coming from the Republicans; I’m saddened by the entire process. It’s just such obviously overdone pomp and circumstance that the actual purpose – to hear what our top-ranking executive officer believes the current state of our country is – gets lost in the muck. So much so that, at the end of it all, we’ve learned nothing that we weren’t already very well aware of – we’ve done a very poor job at choosing people to run our country…

I mean, what are we? Retarded? A point is made by our president immediately followed by applause. It doesn’t matter what the point is, applause is always expected. Now apparently what matters here is the intensity of the applause and who chooses to stand or not. Of course the standing choice seems simple enough depending on which side of the house you’re sitting in. If you’re nearest neighbors stand, you probably should as well; if they stay seated, you’d best do the same … you might be able to get away with a “golf clap” (that’ll show you’re a man that thinks for himself…) but I think standing might get you tarred and feathered at y’all’s next clan meeting (oh wait! I mean party convention). Have we seriously chosen to use tactics from the Gong Show as a way to convey the current health of the country to its citizens – not to mention to the rest of the world…? Are we really stuck at that elementary grade mentality? It sure would appear so…

And afterward, oh my god, afterward… Doesn’t matter which channel you chose to view the madness, there’s inevitably a plethora of people (pundits, newsmen, “experts” … cretins…) just waiting to explain to you what you just watched. What the hell?! And it’s hilarious! What they talk about is primarily the reactions – the much expected and completely preordained reactions – as opposed to the actual speech. Sure, they’ll mention a part of the speech; only as a lead-in to what is far more important – the reaction from the audience. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t need to have somebody explain to me what I had just finished watching. Thanks, but I was there… And I love how the representatives for the various parties (ehh, who we kidding? – the two parties…) are so quick to instruct their registered followers exactly how they are to feel about everything. The worst part about this, unfortunately, is that the lemming-like morons that have decided to forfeit all their personal decision-making skills to whichever party was able to seduce them enough do just this – they fall in line willingly.

Listen … I know we all needed to be properly taught the rights and wrongs of this world when we were children. I personally believe that this task has fallen in perceived import to many of those currently charged with it … but I digress… By the time we are full-grown adults, however, shouldn’t we be able to think for ourselves? Or is the problem that many of us are incapable of processing information on our own and deciding how we personally feel about it? Is it because everyone’s afraid that they might actually think differently about something than their trusted peers and that this difference of view might get them ostracized from society? Has our society turned into a 24-hour game show where everyone’s waiting for somebody else to decide what they are supposed to do next? I think the government would be happy with that.

Oh well, fuck it. What do I care…? I’m just really wondering why nobody else seems to be as upset about being so blatantly talked down to by a bunch of people with their own not so hidden agendas. Why isn’t anybody else as pissed about being treated like a child???

bis später,

Coriolis

Aye Batter Batter

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been attending “alcohol/drug addiction education” classes. Not to learn how to get addicted to alcohol or drugs – that would just be silly – but rather as group counseling sessions (usually mandated by a California court) aimed at helping addicts to quit their addictions. I’m only there as a “good will” gesture suggested by my lawyer in order to get an obstruction of justice charge dropped – I am not an addict. That being said, I’ve decided to give you, the reader my analysis of just how useless I believe these sessions would be for me if I were an addict. To sum it all up, I believe these court-mandated counseling sessions for fee are just one more of the seemingly endless pieces of bullshit that our government (well, the California government at least) has decided to force on the citizens to allow the self-assuming superior people a false sense of helping others. Let me explain…

First off, let me sum-up what I have been able to learn about how “the system” here in California works. The way it goes is that, if you get busted for some sort of drug/alcohol related crime (mainly possession and DUI), there is a possibility that the court will give you the option of attending these “educational” group sessions rather than going to prison. What the odds of getting this option are is still unknown to me; however it appears that where you get busted as well as who you get busted by seems to have some impact on this happening. Of course since I’m using these sessions for a court case in Colorado, I did not experience this procedure first-hand; however it doesn’t take a genius to realize that a large majority of people presented with this choice would opt for the counseling, right…? One would think…

There’s a little bit of a twist to the counseling option though – it’s a “pay for” service. This means that, if you’re interested in taking the “education”, you need to be willing and able to pony up some cash. It’s $30 per session plus a registration fee. In my case, the registration fee alone was $260. Whether this is a conventional amount or some sort of “special” pricing they came up with for my unique case (it brought my total amount due with the eight sessions to an even $500) I am unaware; however since the typical court-ordered counseling is either a 16 or 24 week stint (one class per week), the pricing for this option can easily get out of reach for many people. So basically what we have here is a government run court of law giving “get out of jail free” cards only to those that can afford them. Isn’t it ironic … don’t ya think?

To add to this irony, the government gets absolutely none of the money that is paid for these classes – none! There are actually institutions in California that have somehow arranged it so that courts can “strongly suggest” people pay them for their services else go to jail. Courts can mandate that somebody either purchases a service being offered by a private institution or go to jail. Am I the only one who finds this fascinating? I mean yeah, there are strict rules that need to be adhered to in order to complete this counseling; but it sure beats going to prison! So basically you’ve got private institutions that have obtained the right to have people forced by the courts to buy their services. And the worst part about all this is that their services (at least as far as I’m concerned) don’t work…

Why do I say this? Well for many reasons. The first of which is the number of people in the classes I’ve been attending that have “been here before” … for quite a few, many times. Several of the students have even been to prison already and are using this option as a change of pace. For this spin through the judicial revolving door they’ve decided to take a much more expensive, somewhat more scenic route. If nothing more than positive results were used to justify the existence of these non-prison options, I seriously doubt they would be around much longer. But then what would we do with the sudden influx of people in need of incarceration? Is this no more than a way to keep prison populations down?

The main reason however that I believe these classes don’t work is based on the fact that I’ve been attending them for some nine hours now and have learned absolutely nothing. It’s exactly what I was expecting it to be – well intentioned people spouting out dime-store philosophy to a completely uninterested audience. Most (if not all) of the people are only there to stay out of jail and it’s extremely difficult (even for those with actual educational training) to teach those uninterested in learning. Having some former addict (and I do believe all of the instructors are former addicts) attempt to explain basic societal mores that I’ve been well aware of since elementary school to me seems like little more than an insult to my intelligence. Throw in their biased views on philosophy being taught as “must dos” and it becomes downright frightening.

But you can’t blame the people administering these classes. I do believe that they are actually trying to help. Unfortunately, the problem is not this counseling. The problem isn’t even the government giving people the option to buy their “get out of jail free” cards. I believe that the real problem we are facing today is the lack of responsibility shown by a large portion of the American people. Mix this in with an unrealistic need for vengeance upon the unknown for crimes that the media is doing their best to often times glamorize, slowly stir in an attempt to reach uniform consistency and let set.

What we end up with is what we currently have in California: laws becoming stricter with respect to drugs of all varieties and tolerances asymptotically approaching zero for those that try to test these law’s boundaries, prisons getting overcrowded with more and more three-strikers to the extent that alternatives need to be found quickly and finally the government mandating citizens to purchase services from private institutions else join the crowds already in prison. Has our society really come to this? Are many of the crimes committed actually worthy of the punishment they’ve incurred? I seriously doubt it…

Now you might be wondering exactly what I’m getting at here and I wouldn’t blame you at all for that – I’m kind of curious myself… It just seems to me that something needs to change. Perhaps we should get rid of the “three strikes” rule and go back to evaluating the severity of a crime on a case by case basis? Seems to me like that might just open up the possibility for a ton of new jobs considering the number of cases prosecuted each and every day. Maybe we should take a lesson from many of our friends across the pond and learn to start tolerating an individual’s decision to use drugs as long as nobody else is endangered. When you think about it, how is this any different than the use of alcohol…? Maybe we should instill the value of personal responsibility in our children so that these issues never arise.

I actually don’t know and am not about to claim that I have any answers. I will say however that the experiences I’ve been going through the last couple of months sure have posed a lot of questions…

bis später,

Coriolis

Cough, Cough...

The FDA has decided to take it upon their authority to ban all flavored cigarette products sold in the United States. Interestingly enough, menthol flavored cigarettes are the one and only exception to this ban. It’s an act targeted at removing a gateway currently used to, I don’t know, “fool?” children and young adults into becoming regular smokers.

It’s a huge piece of bullshit, though… The government can throw out numbers (pulled usually directly out of their butts) showing how this ban is going to save billions and billions of lives, right? So what?! All this is in reality is one more freedom being stripped away from the American citizen. It’s just another case where those that can have decided to mandate their own personal ideology onto those they regard as too stupid to think for themselves. Not to mention that I don’t even think it’s even indisputably legal.

Tobacco, even with its heinous image in modern society, is still a legally marketed substance. Even with this latest ban, anybody of age (what is it now, over 18???) can still legally walk into a convenience store and purchase any number of cigarettes he wishes to purchase – as long as they’re not flavored.

Now the chemicals that are currently being used to add a little “flavor” to these cigarettes are also completely legal to use. I’m positive that you will find these same “artificial flavorings” in any number of other food items being sold today. Put the two together and suddenly the FDA has the right to say that you can’t sell the resulting flavored cigarettes? Umm, why???

The argument is that this magical flavoring of tobacco makes tobacco products more desirable to children and young adults. However true this statement is – and it sounds like nothing more than pure speculation to me – it’s still not a valid reason to completely (except for menthol flavored – I guess some exceptions are justifiable?) ban a product. Hell, you can even throw out the “young adults” portion of the reasoning since young adults are defined to be at least 18 years of age and are therefore old enough to purchase tobacco if they so choose. The argument now becomes something about these flavored cigarettes being a gateway for children to become regular smokers; however children are already banned from purchasing tobacco products by their age alone…

So let’s just call a spade a spade here and admit that the purpose of this ban is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to force a viewpoint about the evils of tobacco into everybody’s mind with a law. We can continue to dance around the actual law of banning tobacco completely by creating more laws that make it harder and harder for someone to legally enjoy a smoke; however I’m just waiting for the actual ax to fall where the “know betters” finally do the smokers of this country a huge favor and completely outlaw this vice they are too stupid to quit on their own. After all, in this “land of the free”, it’s best not to let the citizens choose what freedoms they get. We’re all far too stupid for that…

Another interesting aspect about this newly adopted ban is exactly who it’s going to hurt. It will, in no way, hurt the “Big Tobacco” industry. They’ve even gone so far as to exclude the one flavoring (menthol) that the big boys even use. No … those that are going to be hurt by this are the somewhat smaller companies (the ones that aren’t financing political careers as much as the big boys) currently selling clove and flavored cigarettes to niche markets. It’s also going to give the FDA some precedence required for them to start making wider and wider bans on various other forms of so-called “alternative” nicotine delivery systems. I’m thinking the vaporizers (i.e. Green Smoke) will be feeling some pain soon; they rely on flavors as a way to separate themselves from competition.

Putting capitalism aside, I believe the political ramifications alone from this latest ban should scare the shit out of every freedom loving American. As I mentioned above, they (the FDA) are banning the combination of legal substances to enhance the appeal (for some, I personally am not a fan of flavored cigarettes…) of one of those substances based on shaky assumptions. Not only is the “gateway” argument purely speculative; it’s a pre-defined set of values getting prescribed to all through the enactment of a law. How long before all of our freedoms become sanitized to a point where we’re merely free to behave as our government has mandated?

bis später,

Coriolis

The Cost of Justice

So I am, once again, a free citizen. Have been for some time now… I’ve got a court date scheduled for early October for what I believe is being called my “pre-trial” hearing; however I have shelled out the money for a retainer and have successfully hired private legal counsel. There’s a lot to be said for private legal counsel – not only will it allow me to not attend my pre-trial hearing (my lawyer will be my legal representative making a trip back from California by me unnecessary) but I quickly grasped the usefulness the day after I got released from jail…

I rose early that day (heck, I actually got no sleep at all) and quickly jumped into my next task. I needed to get a lawyer. My flight was scheduled to be departing for LAX the next day at 3:15 in the afternoon and I had just been informed the day before that my bail restrictions forbade my leaving the state of Colorado. It was never clearly explained to me how long I needed to stay in the state; I just assumed that “until my pre-trial was completed” was a pretty safe guess at a minimum. There were also stipulations in which I needed to contact a specific substance abuse counseling center within 24 hours of being released from jail as well as sign up for substance abuse (alcohol) monitoring. This was all assuming that I stayed in Colorado as the court only had jurisdiction in that state. If you recall from my earlier story, this was a bit of a problem – I lived (and currently still reside) in California.

At the time it seemed a bit strange that the fact that I lived in California seemed to be unknown (or at least not a concern) to the court. I didn’t discover why this was until I actually received and was able to inspect my arrest summons. I got this along with my other personal possessions upon getting bailed out of jail the night before. The funny thing about this was that the address written on it was the address to my house in Longmont, Colorado. The somewhat more puzzling thing was that my Colorado driver’s license number (with the “state” blank marked “CO”) was also written on the summons. My Colorado driver’s license (with the newly-punched hole made by the California DMV office), however, was sitting in a drawer of a dresser located in my room at my current home in Thousand Oaks, California! The license that was in my wallet (and therefore on my possession at the time I was booked) was in fact my California license. Why this perfectly valid license was ignored and personal information for me was retrieved from “the system” is still a bit of a mystery to me … was this possibly easier…?

As a side note here, I didn’t notice the Colorado information on my summons until I had left the jail. The result of this was that, when I was asked to sign out with my signature and address, I wrote my current California address. It probably means nothing; however the addresses on the summons and my jail release do not match. I’m rather interested to find out why my California license was ignored; however that’s just one of those things (and there are quite a few of those “things”) that I will probably never know…

But I digress … back to the morning. I needed a lawyer – and fast! I gave up on any attempts at actually getting sleep that night somewhere around 7:00 in the morning and switched on my laptop. Luckily for me, the Radisson provided wi-fi access free of charge thus giving me a rather easy task to accomplish. I did a search for attorneys in Boulder, Colorado and was quickly presented with a plethora of lawyers to choose from. I found one that, according to his webpage, specialized in “Criminal Defense & DUI Since 1992”. Now granted I did not get arrested on a DUI (I’m still a bit shaky on exactly why I was arrested…); however I needed criminal defense and alcohol was a major factor in my case as well. I called the office…

I was told that the attorney, as he apparently does each week as standard business practice, was visiting the CU campus that day and wasn’t currently in the office. It was then requested that I give a brief summary of my needs so that they could be relayed to the lawyer by phone. After explaining my plight, I was told to be expecting a call back from the lawyer shortly. It was less than a half hour later when the call was returned.

I felt somewhat more at ease after speaking with the attorney. He gave me the impression that he would be able to contact the correct people necessary to get the bail restrictions (not only the travel restrictions, but all of them) removed allowing me to legally fly home the next day. We had several conversations that morning – each one with the plan changing slightly. At one point I was planning on heading down to his office in Boulder to drop off his retainer (one thousand dollars) then possibly needing to head over to the Boulder Courthouse at (if memory serves me correctly) 6th and Canyon to perhaps sign some paperwork. This changed to possibly needing to meet up with somebody in Longmont who was supposed to have the authority to legally help me out although that was still in an unknown state of readiness. The final plan was to meet up with my attorney back at the Boulder County Jail at 2:00 in the afternoon where he had successfully arranged a hearing with the same judge I was in front of the day before. We were to request that the bail restrictions be removed based mainly on the fact that I lived in California. I was a bit skeptical as the same argument was made by me the day before and seemed to fall on deaf ears; however this time I had much better ammunition – private counsel…

It was requested (by my lawyer, of course) that I bring evidence showing current residence in California as well as my plane tickets for the flight leaving to LAX the next day. No problem – I had a valid California driver’s license (which, mind you, the jail also “had” two nights before but chose to ignore), my Travelocity itinerary clearly showing my scheduled flight, a business card for my job with an address in Westlake Village, California and even a pay stub from said employer made out to my name at my Thousand Oaks address. I gathered said items, wrote out a check for a thousand dollars (retainer, remember?) and headed back to jail with ample time to arrive well before 2:00 – I most definitely was not missing this appointment!

After arriving at the jail, I noticed a posting of the 2:00 docket – my name was not on this list. I inquired with one of the guards about this absence and was informed that I was most likely an addendum. She said she believed there was one addendum to the cases posted – that was probably me. This sounded about right – I still don’t know exactly how my lawyer was able to secure this hearing. When I wasn’t armed with private counsel, I would never have been able to accomplish this. The task now became finding my lawyer. Remember, I had never actually met this guy and actually had no idea what he looked like. I wasn’t too concerned though … there was a thousand dollars in it for him to find me…

Sure enough, a few minutes before the session started, my lawyer found me. I introduced myself by presenting him with the retainer check and quickly gave him a rundown of the documentation I had brought. He needed to speak with another person he was defending during that same session so we parted ways. I headed into the courtroom (this time I was on the much larger glassed in area where I had a view of the two-bench area I was sitting in – immobilized by chains and cuffs – the day before) and took a seat. We were all asked to rise as the judge entered the main chamber – it was not the same judge as the day before…

It was interesting to once again see the flurry of activity that was the arraignment process. This time, however, I saw things more clearly. I was quite exhausted and hadn’t had any sleep for well over 24 hours, however this time I wasn’t dealing with the shock of seeing it in chains and cuffs dressed in a prison jumpsuit. I was somewhat concerned with how our request for freedom was going to be addressed by the court but this was based on the results I got the day before – before I hired private counsel…

A short while into the proceedings I was joined by my attorney and we quietly discussed our plan. I told him that I was hoping to take full advantage of my right to remain silent. I had absolutely no sleep the night before and was a little worried about the whole “open mouth, insert foot” scenario. He said he would do his best but that the judge might want to hear from me. He then told me some interesting discoveries that he had made earlier in the day.

First off, there was absolutely no public record on my being arrested and taken to the ARC (the “drunk tank”). Since I was technically arrested whilst already at the ARC, the lack of any previous record of arrest wasn’t too surprising; however the complete lack of any record on my getting transported to the ARC still seems a bit strange to me. But I do not claim to be any sort of expert on law enforcement procedures, so maybe this is commonplace…? I don’t know…

The other piece of information that he told me was that I had a 0.227 blood alcohol content at the time of my arrest. Whether this was from a breathalyzer or – from the needle marks on my right arm – possibly a blood test, I do not know. Bottom line was that I was seriously drunk. Not much of a shocker to me considering that I remembered nothing of the night since arriving at the Fusion bar; however this was actually good news for our case. The way my lawyer put it, “I was acting like somebody that blew a 0.227.” This supported the argument that I was not a habitual drinker…

I think somewhere around a half hour passed before my case was called (oh yeah, one more thing about the advantages of private counsel – cases with private counsel are prioritized before those without … probably as a way to minimize the cost for defendants paying lawyers by the hour; however I believe this useful information if you’ve got the funds…). My lawyer did an excellent job explaining the circumstances of my case. I said absolutely nothing. All the bail restrictions were removed. Sweet!

After we left the jail, my attorney suggested that I consider taking an alcohol counseling class back in California as a “good will” gesture. That should pretty much guarantee the charges get dropped. I’m currently in the process of accomplishing this although things seem to be quite different in California. I’m actually getting the impression that somebody choosing to take part in alcohol counseling on their own accord is something that they don’t allow here. I found a place that offers the course; however I can’t take it until I can come up with some sort of paperwork from the court in Boulder saying that I need it. How stupid is that? Sure, we’ll help those looking for help if – and only if – it is mandated by a court of law … seems a bit counterproductive to me. Oh well, I’ve signed the "release of information" form required for my lawyer to contact the program director. Maybe he can talk some sense into her…?

All this has got me to wondering … what if I didn’t have the means to afford private counsel? I guess it’s just one more example of capitalism at work…

bis später,

Coriolis