Beware of Googlers Bearing Gifts

Google is the Barack Obama of the Technology Industry.

It's quite astounding that a company which makes 97% of its revenue off of advertising gets a free pass virtually all of the time.. and for the most part the technology press is absolutely giddy over the announcement of Google's Chrome Operating System.

At this time Goggle knows who you are ,where you live and everything else it can gather as your browsing goes through their computers. While Larry Page and Sergey Brin have some pretty scary Orwellian dreams of what to do with all this information—at this time it is primarily used to sell us stuff.

Back in the old days newspapers depended on advertising, but it was not seamlessly integrated into their news-gathering, reporting,and editorial functions--and certainly not in distribution. In communication courses budding young reporters, and pretty boys and girls attractive enough to have anchor potential, spend countless hours learning about conflicts of interests and their ethical responsibilities.

Although these Edward R Murrows are often self-important douches, particularly when they pompously discuss their role as the “Fourth Estate”--the historical truth is that newspapers play a key role in keeping a check on the government and the powerful interests in society. It was so important that their freedom is specially protected in the very First Amendment to our Constitution.

Newspaper reporters have been known to go to jail for defying orders coming from the judiciary. Who was the last Information Technology guy who went to jail because they refused to hand over information to a government?

Well, that would be none.

These Internet companies tailor their search engines to comply with the censorship requirements of each individual country where they are doing business—whether it is China, Germany, France or the United States. When tyrannical governments crack down on the Internet, users resort to things such as proxy servers to get information out—but don't expect Google to provide any space to host these proxies. And at times they are not adverse to providing identifying information to the despotic governments so they can arrest their critics.

While all the technology companies are, to a greater or lesser extent, guilty of this behavior—Google is the one that matters. Microsoft continues to lag behind, since Bill Gates only belatedly woke up and realized that the future of personal computing was not storing recipes on a hard drive—and the sale of shrink wrapped software to index them.

The Microsoft business model is so 1980's—they make products and charge money for them. Google collects and stores every single fact it can garner about its users on their servers inorder to manipulate us into buying stuff. At the very real risk of being way over the top—one could say that the Google model is rather Faustian.

Google is already scanning your email, and storing the thumbprints of your soul regardless of what Internet Browser you use—but that is not enough. Google wants it all. They want to choose what applications you can load to manipulate data. They want all of your data--thus they would like to give you a free operating system.

It improves the already extraordinarily refined ability of Google to target us with their ads. They don't want to be thwarted by annoying people who do such things as occasionally crumble the evil Google cookie. And the Feds will appreciate the efficiency of only having to make one stop inorder to find out what nefarious activities you have been engaged in.

But don't expect the Internet fanboys and Twitter Twats to be screaming how creepy Google is. They will continue to bore us with their praise of Google for taking on the Evil Microsoft Empire—as they listen to music on a hip device manufactured by a monopolistic company that owns the operating system, software, hardware and Internet download Tune site.

However, Google has modified the don't be evil mission statement.

After they chose to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party thugs in censoring the Chinese people, Eric Schmidt said “We actually did an evil scale and decided not to serve at all was worse evil.”

So the mantra is now sort of an evil minimization algorithm, utilizing the theorems of evil relativity, with an overriding postulation that not maximizing the number of Google users is the worst evil of all.

People should have been bringing this up when Google announced its plans to give us an operating system.

But it will be a cold day in Mountain View when we decide it might be prudent to beware of Googlers bearing gifts

Invasion of Obama Medical Privacy Snatchers

As a general rule we should be skeptical when the government passes a law and creates a regulatory agency if there is little indication there is a problem which needs to be addressed. And as a universal rule, whenever Congress passes any legislation regarding individual privacy you know that it has little to do with privacy.

The HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ) privacy provisions are no exception.

I can vividly recall the period of time when the federal government reached into my doctor's office to protect my medical records. At the time I was living in Massachusetts, and was seeing a dermatologist. The doc primarily practiced in Boston, but once a week he had office hours in a little town in New Hampshire, only about five miles from my home.

His practice was to bring the day's patient files up from Boston, and would have them stacked on the desk next to the receptionist. One day in 2003 I noticed they had put a towel over the pile of files—HIPAA had gone into effect—and the blanket was the doctor's way of ensuring he was in compliance with the new federal law.

I had never fretted over this stack of files—and had never really been concerned about the privacy of my medical records. I was aware that doctors have an ethical and legal obligation not to release medical information about me without my consent—and if he ever violated my privacy I would have a viable lawsuit.

And I do not recall any great outcry from the people, begging the federal government to come in and protect the privacy of their medical records—it was simply not a big problem

So why did Congress feel it necessary to create a complicated regulatory structure to ensure the privacy of medical records?

The answer is they wished to erode general ethical and common law privacy rules and facilitate the transfer of personal medical records. The government is not really concerned that an unauthorized wandering eye might catch the name of one of my dermatologist's patients as a snoop passes by the stack of files---they want to encourage the doctor to digitize all the records so they can be transferred to various databases at lightening speed.

The good intentions of HIPAA supporters is not the point—what is important is that this was a governmental power grab. After the failure of Hillarycare, and it's effort to exert federal regulatory control over the entire medical industry, they went the Salami route—take control of American Healthcare one slice at a time.

The Obama administration has plans to slice another big chunk of Salami. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act budgeted $2 billion dollars to fund the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The administration has also budgeted $19 billion in federal taxpayer dollars earmarked for investment in Health Information Technology.

The Recovery Act also mandates that every provider acquire and implement health information technology to create an electronic health record for every person in the nation by 2014 and transfer “minimum necessary” patient information , whether or not they are enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid, to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

“Minimum necessary information” is to be determined by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Service.

Of course, the purpose of all this is to develop so-called “best practices” and otherwise limit the treatment and healthcare options available to patients—regardless of whether the federal government is picking up the tab (albeit their intent is to eventually get everyone pretty much on the public medical dole)

However, on principle, I wish to be selfish and not transfer any of my medical information to the federal government even if Kathleen Sebelius does deem it important, and it might give the bureaucrats a sense of joy, empowerment and superiority.

But the federal government has already asserted that it has virtually unlimited discretionary power to examine our personal medical records—these new laws, regulations and gathering apparatus are only designed to fully implement this power and make the process legally unassailable.

Beatrice Heghmann , a registered nurse in Durham, New Hampshire, feels the same way. She has filed a class action in federal court challenging the constitutionality and legality of the scheme.

Dr. Deborah Peel, founder of Patient Privacy Rights, and Coalition For Patient Privacy, predicts more lawsuits will come on the heels of Beatrice Heghmann's efforts.

It's gonna be a tough row to hoe, but I wish her the best.

Greening Up the World's Sex Life

The leaders of the industrial world will be attending the G-8 conference in L’Aquila, this week. The hot topic will be global climate, the environment and how to encourage the development of Green Technology.

The meeting will be hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the hottest politician on the planet, Italy's Minister for Equal Opportunity, Mara Carfanga, who prior to entering politics was an exceptionally beautiful topless model and dancer.

No doubt the couple will be protected by Berlusconi's lesbian bodyguards. But there is no word on whether Barack and Michelle will be invited to one of the Prime Minister's parties which feature such things as spectacularly attractive faux lesbians frolicking in the nude and scantily clad women enjoying the Prime Minister's merry-go-round.

We can only hope that our President takes to heart the old adage--- when in Rome do as the Romans—for it will be at this party where Berlusconi and Miss Carfanga will most likely unveil their plan on greening up the world's sex life.

Say what?

You are an environmentalist. You’re an Enlightened Green Consumer. You buy organic food and carry it home from the local market in string bags. Your coffee is shed-grown and fair-trade, and you drive a hybrid. But sex?

Well how about those toys you play around with under those organic cotton sheets or in the solar heated shower?

Forget the carcinogenic lubricants and non-biodegradable grrl toys topping off our landfills—there are some fabulously healthy and pleasurable eco-kinky alternatives.

Patronize entrepreneurs such as Mary Green. Miss Green is a practitioner of social capitalism and devoted to the ethical production of organic intimate wear—such as the 100% Silk Satin Chemise/slip or the Lynx with Strawberry Glow Cami & Thong.

Mary Green is famous for her One-of-a-Kind Silk Eco Panty. Since they are made from silk remnants using at least four fabrics for each Panty, no two are alike—a girl never has to worry about wearing the same thing as another reveler at one of Prime Minister Berlusconi's parties.

Recession Chic is also eco-friendly because it is all about recycling. A sexy summertime favorite is the transformation of a pair of old jeans into daisy dukes—which are ideal for pedaling a bike—the preferred method of transportation in the Big New Green World.

Every library, gym, salon and Japanese Green Sex Club absolutely must have a subscription to Coco Eco—the best eco-fashion magazine ever to come out of the LA eco-greenscene.

But what about those girl toys?

If you live somewhere other than the Pacific Northwest a Solar Vibrator is great for camping or backpacking. Take this spot massager or the California Exotics Solar Sensations on your trip, put it out in the sun for five hours and buzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

For sun-deprived Seattle tree huggers, extreme eco-hippies and Amish girls there is the Earth Angel Wind-Up . It is an 8-inch multi-speed vibrator made from 100% recyclable materials that is charged up with a hand crank. Four minutes of cranking give the Earth Angel a 30 minute charge--more cranking can get it up to 60 minutes of power:



Similarly, as I mentioned a while back, the monkey rocker is a unique device which certainly saves on greenhouse gas emissions.

That's cool, sustainable and everything— but hardcore vibaholics like Margaret Cho will never be satisfied—they should stick with the power guzzling Hitachi Magic Wand.


However, there are certain girl toys which the eco-conscious and health conscious consumer should scrupulously avoid. Some sex toys contain substances called phthalates.

Phthalates have been shown to disrupt the human hormonal system—adversely affecting the kidneys and liver. There are also studies which show they promote the birth of babies that grow up to have small wee wees. I don’t think any of us want to promote that.

The good news is that most manufactures are phasing out the use of PVC plastics and phthalates— but it has nothing to do with government regulation. This is one area where government has been reluctant to regulate (except the eight states which totally ban these toys of the devil ). It's just that consumers are demanding safe masturbatory sex. So these days, quite often sex toys are labeled as being non-toxic—such as the Rub My Wormie Personal Massager—which is not only cuter than a bug-- but a five star viber.

If unsure--- check and see if the toy which catches your eye is made of Elastomer—it is safe and nontoxic. You can get the stupendously popular Rabbit in Elastomer—indeed the Vibratex Elastomer model is the Rolls Royce of Rabbits.

Incidentally, if any of you ladies have an old Rabbit that has lost its jump, an outfit in Britain offers a zero waste orgasm and recycling program. You ship the old Rabbit to them, they donate a British pound to the World Land Trust and send you a hopping new Rabbit at half price.

But if you want to be real pure go for such things as the fascinating cobalt blue glass wand, glass Ben Wa Balls, the Silver G-Spot Vibe or the classic seven inch silver trinity.

Finally there are socially responsible, vegan, cruelty-free bath products from people such as the Organic Bath Company. And toss the KY Jelly—use such wonderful lubricants as the 100% natural Liquid Goddess.

Enjoy...

Silvio Berlusconi and Mara Carfanga commend you for being an ecologically responsible citizen of the world.

The Victimization of Sarah Palin

I almost hope that Sarah Palin is calling it quits because an indictment is about to be unsealed or she has been involved in a long-distance lesbian affair with an Argentine firecracker.

Otherwise it means Blondenfreude has won again—and the only path to redemption is embracing victimhood.

Recently it seems that all Sarah has been doing is whining about her treatment at the hands of the mainstream press, other Republicans, and a dirty old man who thinks himself a sophisticated late night comic. I realize some of this can not be ignored—no mother would stay silent in the face of statutory rape jokes about her adolescent daughter. But playing the victim is always a no winner.

And unleashing a legal mouthpiece, to threaten your detractors with lawsuits, does not make you a gutsy victim—just a sniveling litigous crybaby of the Perez Hilton variety.

For years Ronald Reagan took vicious flack from both Democrats and Republicans—an unqualified nutcase, whose greatest achievement was being best supporting actor to a chimpanzee. Reagan did not whine—nor did he quit—he just pressed on, and in the end the laughingstock got the last laugh.

I am sure it has been difficult for the governor—the feeding frenzy has survived the election and shows no signs of abating. Conservative women always make the left go wild—but Caribou Barbie is a special case. At one time there was a serious possibility she would derail the Obama Express.

After Palin took the stage with John McCain, for the first time in the campaign, polls showed McCain beating Obama in the electoral college. Picking Palin was a brilliant gamble, and one that I had suggested long before he made the decision.

Sarah Palin did not just shore up social conservatives, she had libertarian tendencies that could have broadened the ticket's appeal, was a reformer and there was the female factor.

Barack Obama had won the nomination by defeating the first serious female candidate for president and one who happened to have received more votes in the primaries than him. A whole lot of women (and residents of Florida) were really pissed. I thought it foolish of him not to pick Hillary Clinton for veep—and McCain could capitalize on the bitch slap and all the sexism.

But Obama was smarter than McCain and myself. He knew that virtually all African-Americans would vote for him simply because of his race even if they disagreed with his politics—but that is not the pattern among women voters.

Unlike conservative African-Americans, many women were indignant at the suggestion they might vote for Palin “simply because she was a woman”. By this they really meant they would not vote for her because she was a woman.

And the smear attacks began in earnest—much of it being extraordinarily mean, and often vile and disgusting, misogynistic slanders and crude sexist witticisms.

Sarah Palin was certainly no more uninformed or underqualifed than the dolt picked by the First George Bush—Danforth Quayle or the caddish ambulance chaser selected by John Kerry. Her Church was much less offensive than the Reverend Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, which Barack Obama attended for twenty years.

As far as experience, since Palin had served more than one day in an executive position, she beat Barack Obama. And she had not obtained public office by riding a tidal wave of sympathy engendered by the public exposure of a philandering husband.

But that did not fit the story line. A Wasilla hillbilly girl, with a typical slightly dysfunctional family, who attends an evangelical church—could not possibly, on merit alone, achieve high office—nor have a brain in her head.

They don't get how any self-respecting intelligent woman could ever be "proud to be trash"...


just like they don't get why I took it as high praise when one of my nitwit readers slammed me as "Trailer Trash With a Brain."

So the press and the left were relentless, and have now been joined by certain elements of the Republican Party—the descendants of the country club Rockefeller Republicans—whom Ronald Reagan also had to contend with, and even tried to make peace with by picking George Herbert Walker Bush as his vice-president, even though Ivy League Poppy had accused him of such things as “voo doo economics.”

But Barracuda Sarah has seemingly thrown in the towel.

To knowingly and intelligently choose victimhood is disturbing, but I think I know the reason—she is a woman. For women the most important thing is their family—a cause for which most women will always suck it up and sacrifice everything. Sarah Palin is unwilling to let them throw any more dirt into the face of her family.

The collective asses of the left and hags of the Hamptons should feel quite ashamed.

UPDATE: Anita Hill's favorite woman-sensitive guy, Lunchbucket Joe Biden, has opened his mammoth pie hole to let us know that Sarah Palin is no victim.

Nearly Naked Fireworks

Fireworks are getting hotter.

This is the kind of thing that gets me all conflicted. As an intelligent woman I should be deeply offended, by the sight of minimally clad young women hawking fireworks at a stand in Puyallup, Washington.

And if I was a totally straight girl (or a 1993 lesbian), I might be. But alas I am neither—when it comes to stuff like this no guy has me beat for shallowness:



The bodacious enterprise is setting off some sparks among the good people of Washington State. But it is just an extension of the sexpresso stands which are now passe in that caffeinated corner of the world.

A couple years ago some entrepreneurs discovered that a lot of guys prefer to purchase their Joe from a chick in a see through blouse and bottomless chaps, rather than the girl in khaki and Birkenstocks.

Lets face it--regardless of the product--it's a business model that is sure to stimulate.

Of course the usual suspects have been bitching and moaning. I heard one woman complain about the exploitation of it all. I know my feminist friends would agree—and surprise—so do I. As a girl who has bounced around selling cocktails, and in college even briefly went pole dancing until it had the desired effect of prodding my Dad to raise his cash strapped daughter's allowance-- I get it—but the issue here is who is doing the exploiting.

No attempt should be to made justify nearly naked fireworks hawking, stripping or hooking on third wave feminist theory or anything vaguely esoteric like that. Its just a matter of managing and maximizing the use of natural resources.

If guys, or shallow lesbians, are willing to pay more for their sparklers or a cup of Joe, if it is served up by a scantily clad chick—more power to said chick—so long as she knows what she is doing and is getting a fair return.

Getting more bang for the buck is an American tradition.

It is that sort of thinking and initiative that made this country great.


And is why we celebrate the Fourth of July.

Have A Great One!!!!

And after the Patriotic Pyrotechnics, and enjoying a a few of the other things Liberty Dyke recommends for a proper Libertarian Fourth of July, Liberty Belle has a dozen books that every Patriot should have in their library.

That's freedom baby!!

Honduras Hopes Obama Butts Out

For years the United States has been criticized, with a great deal of justification, for interfering in Latin American politics. Not only was this resented by the people of Latin America, but inevitably we chose the wrong side.

And here we go again. Deposed Honduran thug Manuel Zelaya has run to Barack Obama, telling him that he is the only hope. By this he means the only hope of getting the Chavist Bolivian Revolution back on track in Honduras.

Zelaya was deposed by the military because he was attempting to subvert the Honduran Constitution, and setting himself up as president for life—just like his heroes Hugo Chavez and the Castro twins. The Supreme Court ordered him to cease and desist. When he refused, the military came in and whisked the traitor away to Costa Rica in his pajamas.

It is the same kind of thing that might have happened if in January, George Bush had declared a state of emergency, justifying a suspension of the constitution. I am quite confident the military, which has taken an oath to support and protect the Constitution, would have removed his traitorous ass from the White House.

As always happens with efforts to remove leftist douchebags, organizations like the UN and OAS, and the mainstream Western Press (as well as leftist truthers ,like humorless comedian Allison Kilkenny, who wants us to know that an American government conspiracy is behind the Zelaya ouster) become quite offended. But in the past, the United States government has generally not jumped on the bandwagon.

Barack Obama, a world renowned expert on Honduran law, has said the removal of Zelaya is illegal, and aligned himself with Chavez and Castro, in committing the United States to a Honduran Dictatorship.

And the press has backed him, noting that there is universal international support for restoration of the Chavez lackey. But, even propagandists slip up sometimes. A couple days ago reporter Will Weissert let this slip:

“With no international support but a SIGNIFICANT FOLLOWING AT HOME, the new Honduran leadership called thousands of flag-waving people into a downtown plaza” (emphasis added).

Indeed the removal of this tin horn dictator is widely supported by Hondurans who are proud of their democracy, and the only thing they hope for is that Barack Obama leaves them alone.

Although, there has been no censoring of the Internet or restrictions on foreign press coverage in Honduras, Americans have pretty much only been shown Manuel Zelaya being treated like a hero by the UN General Assembly, and a couple dozen scruffy Marxists indiscriminately tossing bricks.

Oh—and the Friends of the Earth as well:



Whatever hippie.

But the supporters of the ouster have been out in force—and all but ignored by the media:



These are the freedom fighters. They are not asking for Barack Obama's help— they only ask that the United States , for the first time ever in Latin American history, leave them alone and not assist the forces of tyranny.

George Orwell once said, "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." When the Honduran military, in defense of their Constitution, removed el presidente they spoke the truth—Chavist Socialism and Democracy are fundamentally incompatible.

Viva Honduras! Viva la revolucion!

This is the hope of the Honduran people.

The Dumbing Down of America

During the presidential campaign Barack Obama would often use a catch phrase to rebut McCain and Republican talking points--- “the American People aren't stupid.”

I am sure Barack Obama is quite aware that is not true at all—Americans are dumber than dirt and susceptible to all kinds of manipulation--- whether it is the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or that it is somehow possible to drastically increase federal spending and reduce the crushing national deficit at the same time.

The Goldwater Institute commissioned a study to find out if recent Arizona high school graduates had the requisite knowledge expected of naturalized American citizens. The result was that, except for the fortuitous circumstance of having been born on American soil, only 6.4% of public high school graduates would be entitled to the benefits of American citizenship.

Most of these scholars were unable to identify the first president of the United States, or the name of the Ocean located on the East coast of America.

When I was young and naive I used to think there had to be an explanation for Jay Leno's “Man on the Street” shtick. I always thought the participants were nervous, intentionally attempting to get their thirty seconds of fame on the Tonight Show, or that one of Jay's producers passed them a couple bucks.

But the explanation is much simpler—America is the land of the dumb and dumber.

Americans are much better versed in the composition of the Homer Simpson family than they are with the Constitution.

A study found that about 1 in 4 Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances). But more than half of Americans can name at least two members of the cartoon family.

They found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just 1 in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms.

Europeans have long joked that "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.”

But it was not until the advent of modern scientific polling that it has become clear what spectacular dumbasses we really are—and how rapidly we are becoming even dumber.

In a book, called Just How Stupid Are We?, destined to never become a bestseller, historian Rick Shenkman stares into the deep abyss of American Ignorance and directly confronts the continued legitimacy of the cherished notion of the wisdom of the people.

And the sad thing is while there is greater participatory democracy, and unprecedented access to information, as a society we are getting dumber and dumber.

As the American voter dumbs down they are increasingly misusing, abusing, and abdicating their political power.

The end result is the erosion of freedom and liberty, and everything that made America special. Since we are so stupid and uniformed we are increasingly willing to hand over all decision making and power to the federal government and it's apparatchiks.

Indeed, nearly half of Americans think that the president has the authority to suspend the Constitution.

In the end dumb dumbs get what they deserve—tyranny.

As Thomas Jefferson observed:

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

A Thumbs Up For OfficeMax

About two and half years ago, in partial reparation for years of sibling annoyance and a very long two-week stay at my home-- complete with the usual spectacle of her alley cat ways, my little sister went to OfficeMax and bought me a very nice HP Pavilion Laptop.

Because she had the hots for the cute salesman, he was able to sell her a three year extended warranty with MaxAssurance.

Of course, I was delighted by the unusual thoughtfulness, but I must admit I did not really feel there was any kind of maximum assurance that OfficeMax would make good if the puter croaked.

My skepticism has an empirical basis—you will be hard pressed to find a decent review of MaxAssurance on the Internet—or even one that is not ridden with quite a few explicatives and one- fingered salutes.

Perhaps I am the exception that proves the rule—but I feel an obligation to give the OfficeMax extended warranties program a thumbs up, even if it does feel kind of like giving Bernie Madoff a Better Business Bureau award.

About three weeks ago the hard drive crashed. I called up the MaxAssurance number. Like with all businesses or government agencies that truly care about us, I had to go through endless automated phone menus.

In the end I was instructed that UPS would deliver an empty prepaid box and I was to ship the ailing laptop to this repair shop in Texas. This was a bit irritating. It's like if an auto warranty required that a car be shipped back to Detroit for repair—and there are plenty of computer shops in my area that would certainly appreciate a contract with MaxAssurance. Besides, I could pretty easily sweet talk a geek into putting in a new hard drive—which are not real expensive.

But a couple days later they called up and said the computer was totaled, and they were sending me a gift card for the purchase price. It arrived in pretty good time—and even included the sales tax that Sis had forked out.

What a deal it turned out to be. Because electronics always go down rapidly in price, I was able to purchase a new laptop that is four times more powerful than the old one—and I decided to even get the extended warranty on the gift card—if this works out right I may never have to actually put out any cash for a laptop again! Jill truly got me a gift that keeps on giving.

And I even had thirty bucks left on the card—OfficeMax mad money—something a girl can only dream of.

I still think, by and large, these extended warranties are a rip off—and laptops and notebooks may be a special exception. Although there have been big improvements, they are inherently pretty weak and frail and prone to various diseases.

And if this had been an essential business computer, the service would have been way too slow.

But kisses and hugs to OfficeMax.