Seven Ways to Fend Off Spyware

Article


1. Beware of pop-up ads that ask you to "click here." Just clicking on a link embedded in an ad can trigger a spyware download and installation, a delivery method known as a "drive by".


Thanks for the warning, but before I could read this a big nasty pop up for some kind of survey apeared , forcing me to make a decision before I could even reaad the first line or two of this article.


2. Bump your browser's default security settings from "medium" to "high" or higher. This way you'll receive an alert any time you're about to download something, which will give you a chance to back out before the damage is done. In Internet Explorer, select Tools from the top menu; under Internet Options, choose Security, then Custom Level.


Only applies to the internet explorer, the worlds buggiest, most virus and parasite prone browser. Ever notice how "STOP USING THE INTERNET EXPLORER" never makes it onto this kind of list ? It didn't make on this one either. (oh yeah ,please click on getfirefox.com )


4. Many free downloads are aimed at kids, so if you have some, consider making this a rule of the house: no downloads without your approval.


When was the last time your kid actually did as you told him / her to ? I know my sisters kids don't !


5. If you are asked to fill out a form in order to get that screensaver or play that game, know that in doing so, you are probably adding yourself to a spam list. Consider creating a second email account (there are many free Web-based services to choose from) and put that address on these forms to deflect unwanted email from your primary account. This is also helpful if you are an avid online shopper.


Odd. "Don't download freebies" and "Don't shop online...go to a reputable store" didn't make the list either. I mean , lets face it. Walk over to the shopping mall, walk into the store , buy stuff. It doesn't fit, it's broken ,w hatever, go back and return it.

Go online ... and you don't know who you're dealing with , where they are , are they going to honor their return policy ? Are they going to even be there next week ? And what about your credit card ? Entire credit card databases are being routinely stolen from major corperations this year even, and there are dozens if not hundreds of virus's out there that the first thing they do is scan your computer to see if you ever typed in your credit card anywhere on any site so they can steal it !

Odd how that doesn't get a lot of press either.


6. Install an anti-spyware program like Spyware Doctor or Spy Sweeper that not only seeks and destroys offending programs, but also detects incoming spyware before it loads and blocks it. If your PC starts acting funny, run a system scan and remove any suspicious files. If you are an active Internet user, set your anti-spyware program to do a full system scan at the end of each day.


but "Spend money on these products" did make the list.


7. Before you purchase an anti-spyware program, check whether your Internet service provider offers one. If so, you probably just have to activate it. (Go to the vendor's home page and look under Security.) "If your ISP doesn't offer it now, it probably will soon," Lambert says. You can also download Microsoft's Windows AntiSpyware program, an early version of the upcoming Windows Defender, by clicking here.


And the almost apologetic "here are some free ones" listed last, at the bottom of a huge article.


Lets recap !
1... keep using the Internet Explorer , the worlds most virus and trojen prone program !
2...buy anti virus junk !
3...give your kids some instructions you know they're going to ignore !
4... don't forget to click on the pop up ad that came on this page and is giving us money !

Yeah ..ok... so who wrote this article again ?

"Legitimate" Spyware

Texas files new spyware claim against Sony BMG


The original lawsuit was filed by Attorney General Greg Abbott in November against the company for violating state anti-spyware laws by embedding software in its CDs and media player to monitor users' habits.

The new charges brought by Abbott contend MediaMax software used by Sony BMG to thwart illegal copying of music on CDs violated state laws because it was downloaded even if users rejected a license agreement.


Ok. I buy a music CD from a reputable company. Sony. I throw it in my computer.
It tries to install software on my computer. I say no , don't do that.
It installs it anyways.


ritics have said the MediaMax software allows the company to track customers' listening habits even if the customers reject maker SunnComm's terms in a licensing agreement that appears upon installation.

Sony wants to collect info on what songs you listen to, and it doesn't care if you say no to it , and it doesn't care that you are the Paying customer, you paid for that cd !
And this is a legitimate company , not a fly by nite spyware shop.

It would seem that Spyware is now going legit.
That is not to say that it is changing it's tactices, but rather , that llegitimate companies are now using it. And you gotta know, they're going to lean on governments and get laws changed to make what was once illegal suddenly legal. Thats how they usually operate.

Welcome to the new world. A simple music cd is now your enemey.

Iran: Holocaust remarks misunderstood

ATHENS, Greece -- Widely condemned remarks by Iran's president about Israel and the Holocaust were "misunderstood" by Western governments, the country's interior minister has said.


Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know that when I called the jews liars and demanded that they be wiped off the face of the planet that it would upset you !


"They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets," Ahmadinejad said in the speech to thousands of people in the Iranian city of Zahedan, according to a report from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.


We're really annoyed that our racist kill all jews religion says one thing, history says another , and you decided to believe history over our religion ! We didn't expect that !



In a speech to thousands of people in the Iranian city of Zahedan, Ahmadinejad said during a tour of southeastern Iran that if Europeans insist the Holocaust occurred, then they were responsible and should pay the price.


True, it was european germans who commited the crimes in question, assuming you're willing to assume those crimes took place, not the iranians.


"Our question is, if you have committed this huge crime, why should the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime?"

1..Palistine isn't a nation, and never was.

2.. they're sitting on the land of israel that your religion drove the jews off of. (by force , murdering those that disagree)

3... whats good for the goose is good for the gander. In other words, if you believe that land is yours because you had the strength to kill off the previous inhabitants, and it's now Israel's because THEY killed off the previous inhabitants and took it back from you ... lol !

4... most non-muslims have little sympathy for a religion that demonizes and punishes non-muslims.

5... when your holy book decided to single out the jews for special attention...yah gotta know the jews now decided to single YOU out for similar attention... lol !

6.. All religions are a pack of lies, useful only for starting wars among people who otherwise really should be friends. We should just burn all those holy books and head down to the nearest pub and have a beer.

7.. don't tell my doctor I said that, I think I'm not allowed beer on all the meds I'm on.

Ottawa Boy

Microsoft warns of critical Windows flaw

Yawn. Another one ?


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday warned users of its Windows operating system of a "critical" security flaw in its software that could allow attackers to take complete control of a computer.

The world's largest software maker issued a patch to fix the problem as part of its monthly security bulletin. The problem mainly affects the Windows operating system and Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser.


Wow, more Internet explorer problems.


Computer security experts and Microsoft urged users to download and install the patch available at www.microsoft.com/security.


Well, I"m a computer expert , and I have a recommendation too !
Stop using the Internet Explorer ! Go and download firefox and get off that flea infested fly trap of a virus attracter !

sheesh ! I've been off of Interent Explorer for a couple of years now. No pop ups, no parasites, no virii ... and thats with no virus scanner and a 5 year out of date fire wall ! What more can I say ?


For more than three years, Microsoft has been working to improve the security and reliability of its software ...


And it aint done yet !
And it aint gonna be done anytime soon !

*Sigh*
When will people learn ?

Ebay Customer-491A1-491

I'm not an Ebay customer. I've never used it.


---------------------------------------
EBAY CUSTOMER -491A1-491
To: xxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com
----------------------------------------

I'm not any kind of ebay customer.


Your business is greatly appreciated and to show our thanks we would
like to
simply go to the following website and fill our form out and we will
award you a free gift.
http://www.peevishly.com/ebay/

Thanks Again and Enjoy!

Filling out a form sounds like a recipie for disaster actually



We're sorry ,offer is not available in your area

Breif , but painless.
Then it redirects me to some kind of money making secrets web site that does have a form you can fill out. I'll enter some bogus information and see where it takes me.

Nope. Wants to mail me stuff and won't go any farther without me actually checking my mail and picking up stuff.

wanted my real phone number too.
I'm not going to bother. It's not the advertised item in the first place and it's an obvious scam ..thats good enough.

Anti-Muslim Riots

Strike force for Sydney race riots


Racially motivated rioting erupted Sunday after thousands of drunken white youths attacked police and people of Middle Eastern appearance at Cronulla beach in southern Sydney.

It spread later with retaliatory attacks by groups of youths of Arab appearance who stabbed one man and smashed dozens of cars.


Hmmm.... looks like some idea's are just too good to keep to yourself. Muslims are not the only ones who now riot when they don't get their way. I wonder if this will be the muslim legacy ... don't get you're way ? Start a riot. If it works for them ... *shrug*

Terminated.

Gang Founder Claimed Innocence Until the End

Stanley Tookie Williams maintained his innocence right up until his death, even when an admission of guilt may have spared him execution.

Even after the courts and Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected a flurry of Williams' last-ditch appeals before his execution early Tuesday, his supporters vowed to prove his innocence.


This is what happens when you rob a store, have the clerk lie down on the floor ,face down , and then shoot him , twice, in the back ,with a shot gun.

You get Terminated !

ha ha... ok... enough with the swartznegger jokes. But somoene had to say the obvious !

As for the debate on the death penalty itself...
... I'm against death penalties. Bureaucrats are only interested in making their life easy , not in justice or fair play. Witness all the old folks homes where they juice the "patients" up on behavioral control drugs and such , and just wait for them to die. One can picture such a system too easily decideing "You're too much trouble, death penalty for you " and "YOu don't bug us much , ,and somone worse might come along if we let you get killed and take your spot, so we're going to have you spared..."

No death penalty for anyone. Life in prison , no hope of parole, sure. But I wouldn't trust a bureacracy with the death penalty. No chance !

Doomed Media fights back...

New technology puts fresh spin on U.S. govt spin


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From the Strategy for Victory in
Iraq to "Recovery Channel" TV on federal disaster relief, the Bush administration's spin operation is in high gear, aiming its message directly at the American public as it critiques the mainstream media


You're bypassing the traditional media ! You're a bad boy , Bush !
Or so the traditional news media reports.


There has been plenty to spin: since George W. Bush's August vacation i.... (insert half page tirade of all the things Bush has done wrong)


ok...so where's this new technology you mentioned ?


The Internet makes it easier now to bypass the Washington media. For example, to get out the government's message on hurricane relief, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency offers the Recovery Channel, which can be seen on local government access television stations in the United States.


Ok, you can't compose a decent thought. ("The internet" has nothing to do with running your own Television channel, television channels are traditional media)


In streaming video available online at http://www.fc-tv.com/clients/recoverychannel/prime.asx, there are high-gloss pieces on such matters as .....


Aha ! you finally , 80% of the way down the page... actually mention the Bush administration using a new technology some how.

Hmm.... actually...that one line blurb is the only "new technology" mentioned in this long an boring tirade against the bush administration.

Yup...this particular media is doomed and it knows it if it's writing pieces like this. Turn off the boob toobs, these guys are no longer reporting the news, they've stepped over the line into attempted brain washing and highly slanted articles.

Not that I particularily approve of Bush , but a "neutril , objective" news report should be just that. This isn't.

The cherry picker argument

Ottawa Boy

Ok. I'm a marketting company.
I make a game , say , MaJong, it's a good game, people like it.
I give it away free.

But ....

I include some tracking software in it. Shows you ads, tracks what web pages you go to things like that.

But... I tell you point blank I'm doing this, ,I don't hide it. And give you the option of not playing my game if you don't like it.


Now then, the user reads all this , downloads the game anyways, runs a virus scanner, and the virus scanner removes my tracking software but leaves the game intact. He's now playing the game without being tracked. without "paying for it" so to speak , since I intended to track his movement across the internet in lieu of charging him any money.

Who's right ? Who's wrong ? Who broke the rules ?
Interesting situation.

There is some credibility in the argument that the user should not have downloaded the program in the first place, and that the virus scanner is wrong to remove the software without removing "all" the software, even the game, because that constitutes not paying for the game in question. You are picking the cherries (the good parts) and leaving the rest behind.

There is also some credibility to the argument that such tracking software is a violation of privacy and should not have been bundled in the first place. This is the same as what happened up here in Canada with smoking. Bars and restaurants could decide for themselves if they would permit you to smoke in them, but every single bar and restaurant in the country promptly became a smokers haven. 100% of them. Why ? Because in every group of 2 or 3 or more people there was at least one smoker, and you didn't want the whole group to wander off elsewhere...so EVERY bar became a smokers paradise , instead of being able to make their own decision on the matter. The market FORCED the situation , whether they liked it or not , and the only solution was to legally FORCE it right back to where it was illegal to smoke in a bar at all.

Similarily , if you permit such advertising to be part of the bundle in any software, paid or free, then the market will very quickly FORCE every single software manufacturer everywhere to include spyware in their products. Picture buying a copy of microsoft word, perfectly legit , and it's spamming the heck out of you because everything does that.

You don't think so ? Look at television. Thousands of puportedly different stations and companies, but every single one of them has spam (advertising). Not just a little, but literally more ads than actual content. The rule of thumb is 22 minutes of show in an hour, and thats universal , across dozens of so called "competing" companies and stations. They're not competing on that point, I've noticed.

Look at cable TV. You're paying for that tv. And that means you're paying not only for the 22 min of show every hour, but the 38 minutes of ads too.

Where this takes a left turn from television , however , is that the TV ads don't crash the TV. The spam does crash and render useless your computer , however, as anyone who's ever caught a virus knows. The thing slows right down ..even to the point where it won't even boot up any more ,and you just want to toss the thing into the trash.

Aha.
Picture cleaning up all the virus's (and thus programs) from your computer and making it work.

Picture installing your favorite game ,and one or two "productivity packages" (spread sheets ,word processers, ,business applications basically). But it all comes with spy ware, and so you're system is back to square one again ..infected to a fair thee well and spamming you like crazy.

And you just cleaned it too.

Virus Writers Sue Virus Scanners

180solutions sues Zone Labs for being called 'spyware'

Zone Labs, an Internet security firm, has been sued by 180solutions. The documents filed in Washington state claim that Zone Labs wrongfully classifies 180solutions' software as spyware. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages and to have Zonelabs remove the spyware warning for 180solutions' products.
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180solutions is currently the target of a class-action lawsuit filed by The Collins Law Firm. That lawsuit filed on behalf of residents in Illinois state alleges that 180solutions' software was wrongfully installed on hundreds of thousands of computers within the state and 20 million computers in the United States.
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(from their blog) We provide search assistant software that delivers consumers to highly targeted websites on behalf of advertisers when they are searching the Internet for products or services.

(from zone labs)
180search Assistant displays ads based on items you view and search on while browsing. It also opens web pages of its advertisers. 180search Assistant sends information about the websites you visit back to its controlling servers.



Ok. So , by everyones definition (except 180solutions) this is a standard piece of scumware that slows your computer down , spams you with ads, and tracks every page you visit.

Scumware's solution to this problem ?

Sue the people who scan for scumware and make them take your product off the list.

Excuse me while I cry.

Why ?

Because it will probably work.
Because there are thousands of scum ware companies out there ,a nd if they all start sueing the virus scanning companies ...well...thats gonna make business way too expensive for them... even if they lose every single law suit they can bankrupt norton , ,zone alarm , all of them.

This will suck bad.

Biting the Hand that Feeds You

Kidnappers threaten to kill Western hostages in Iraq


BAGHDAD (AFP) - Kidnappers threatened to murder four Western peace activists abducted in
Iraq last week ...... In a video that appeared on Al-Jazeera television, the kidnappers said that unless all detainees in Iraqi and coalition prisons were released by December 8, they would kill the American, British and Canadian hostages.


Lemme see if I understand this !

These guys came over to Iraq to say "War is bad , the USA shouldn't be here ! " (They're peace activists) , and the very people that benifit most from this message decide to kidnap them and will probably murder them ?

Hmmm........

I predict the USA will win in Iraq. It will win because the insurgents are stupid idiots. They kidnap and murder the people they should be winning over. They terrorize the population they hide in (thats good for having everyone and the dog turn you in the first time an american patrol drops by). They openly tell the stupidist of lies and are routinely caught at it over and over (the Iraqi foriegn minister comes to mind as the prime example of that)

It's going to be an amusing next 10 years while these idiots alienate everyone and the dog from themselves. I honestly don't believe they're compentant enough to run their own hot dog stand, let alone any kind of revolution or insurgancy.

Courage and self sacrifice are nice... brains are also required.

Ottawa NDP Canditates

Ottawa Boy

Here are the candidates for the NDP for the city of Ottawa

If you want any other party you're on you're own (heh heh heh)

Ottawa South : Henri Sader
Ottawa Centre : Paul Dewar
Ottawa Orleans : Mark Leahy
Ottawa Vanier : Ric Dagenais
Ottawa West Nepean : Marline Rivier

Get out there and vote Ottawa !
(presumably on Jan 23)

Ok ...why do I love the NDP ?

Hmmm....they once won an election in Ontario, to rule the whole province, and didn't make a mess of it. Oh the newsies all spoke about how "inexperianced" they were ,,a nd liked them to zoo animals and stuff, but no one could doubt they honestly persued their agendas of people first and to heck with big business (hmmm...newspapers are big business in canada, arn't they ? No wonder they hate the NDP)

This places them three steps ahead of the Liberals and Conservatives, both of which have very well experianced members who seem to do nothing but mess up ! (And give big business money and tax breaks)

Gee ..why would anyone like the NDP ?

The Expert Politician Speaks

Kim Campbell says Harper won't win

Ok then, lets recap.

Kim Campbell is a former prime minister of canada. (Prime Ministress ? )
She never actually won an election as Prime Minister, she became one because the previous prime minister stepped down.

She served four doomed months in which it was obvious to all that she had about a snow balls chance in heck of getting re-elected.

This is the vast experiance and expertise she brings with her when she states who will and will not get elected.

Excuse me while I roll on the floor laughing for a bit ....

Capitalism At Work

American Tax Dollars well spent, I'm sure.

Engineers confirm LSU levee study

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Government engineers performing sonar tests at the site of a major levee failure confirmed that steel reinforcements barely went more than half as deep as they were supposed to, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official said Wednesday.
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Baumy said the Corps cannot explain the disparity between what its 1993 design documents show was supposed to be there and what they've found.

The documents indicated that the steel reinforcements in the levee, known as sheet piling, went to a depth of 17.5 feet below sea level. Sonar tests indicated the pilings went only to 10 feet below sea level, meaning the flood wall would have been much weaker than intended.

of course , of course. A hurricane will NEVER happen , no one is actually going to use those levee's right ? No one will notice if we stick the steel bars as far down as they're supposed to go, we can just take the money and run....

American Capitalism at it's finest.

What was that roman phrase ? Cavaet Emptor ? Buyer Be Ware ?

Half a Percent in Iraq

US to detail 'Iraq victory plan'

story

Not really interested in the details of the victory plan , but at the bottom of the articals it gives some interesting statistics. Since May of 2003 there have been as few as 120 000 troops and a high of 150 000 troops in iraq. In this time , there have been 2100 american casualties.

Hmmm.... So in two years, the enemies in Iraq have only killed 1% of the americans there ? (Less actually) .

Average term of combat service is 6 months ?
In 6 months service in Iraq you have a half a percent chance of getting killed ?

Are these combat figures , or traffic fatality figures ? This isn't a war. I'd personally be deeply embarrased to be an enemey soldier if this is the effect you're having.

Olympic Dopes !

Officials near solution to doping laws for Torino Games

Under Italian law, athletes can face criminal sanctions for doping violations, raising the possibility of police raids in the Olympic Village during the Games, which run Feb. 10-26.


You say that like it was a bad thing. Of course raid them !!!!


Government supervisor Mario Pescante said Tuesday he will confer with International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge this weekend at a European Olympic meeting in Dublin. However, Pescante declined to give details.


So what is the problem here ?
I'll be happy to explain it to you.

You cannot be an olympic level athelete without being doped up to the gills on steroids or other drugs long ago delcared illegal in most western nations. The unaugmented human body just isn't good enough.

No one wants to admit that these atheletes are great because of what comes out of the pharmacy , instead of any kind of natural talent , because they're supposed to serve as examples for our childer , people to look up to and admire, that sort of thing.

Italy has no nonsense laws about such doping. And you can bet your bottom lira that their atheletes don't use any , and their going to raid EVERYONE who beats them in anything , looking for steroids.

And the Olympic people know they're toast if this goes through , thus they're trying to put a stop to any such raids before things get out of hand.

Blah !

My idea is much better.

Drug test who ever wins the gold in anything. Just the gold medal winners, no one else. Simple, cheap , and one heck of a deterrant, since now , if you're a dope user , YOU CANNOT WIN !

But this will never happen. The place thives on druggies and their dealers.

Stupid. Really stupid.

A weird Blog

Whilst I was surfing through the blogs I came across this, ,and I figure it deserves comment , if only because I SOOOOOO disagree with what it says.

http://brightchristians.blogspot.com/

"On (or about) this day in 1918, Joseph Hofer, a Hutterite conscientious objector to military service, after weeks of torture, starvation and inhumane imprisonment, died in Leavenworth prison."

Lets discuss the whole Conscientious Objector thing.

Fact : There are people out there who would like to kill you , rape your wives and daughter , and take anything thats not nailed down.

Fact : Some of these people rule entire nation states.

Fact : Every Nation MUST protect themselves from these criminals. Do do otherwise is to invite painful death to you , your wife, your kids, your neibours... everyone you love or hate.

In light of these three facts, to stand there and say "No , I refuse to fight" , or "No , I refuse to pay my taxes" is in fact a crime. There is an unwritten social contract, you have banded together with these other people of your particular nation for self protection. To say "You go off and fight, I will stay here and not fight" is both arrogant and murderous. You do not support your society ? You should not be part of it. You should not benefit from it.

The creed of "I refuse to fight" is , whether they realize it or not , the same as the creed of "I want you to die in my place" , and it is quite justifiable to evict these people from your particular nation.


Just an opinion, just an opinion.

100 Million Dollar Man Falls

Its about time.
Lost a vote of no confidence, and the Canadians are going to the polls. Election time , Jan 23 , our dearly beloved 100$ million richer prime minister must now face the voters.

Who would I vote for ?

Anyone but The Shifty and Dishonorable Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Whats my favorite political party ?

NDP .

Hmmm... remind me to look up who's the ndp candidtate in my riding....

And the electioneering has already begun. He hasn't even finished Tea with the Governer General at this point (A cerimony that "officially" brings down the government and calls for the election) and the newsies are circling like sharks.

It's not going to be a boring christmas , if nothing else.

Confessions of a Terrorist

Transcript: Confession by accused Jordan bomber


AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- The following is CNN's translation of the confession of Saijida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, aired on Jordanian television after she was detained Sunday.

"My name is Saijida Mubarak Atrous, born in the 70s. I am an Iraqi national. I reside in Ramadi.
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"My husband detonated his bomb, and I tried to detonate mine but failed.


On the one hand , these muslim terrorists generally will confess at the drop of a hat. I mean , if you're willing to die, you really don't care about jail time , do you ?

On the other hand, obviously prepared statements like this do bring to mind visions of someone standing just off camera with a club or something , beating this confession out of her. It's an image hard to shake , really.

Confessions like this just plain suck. I don't believe it , just on general principles. I don't believe it when some middle eastern country puts it up on TV as something their cops have done , and heck , even when the canadian cops try such a stunt I don't believe it either.

Who knows...maybe they got the right person after all ?

Or maybe they picked up some vagabond off the street and beat her within an inch of her life to make her say this.

I really get a bad feeling about such "confessions". Really.

U.S. president stumps for free trade proposal

U.S. president stumps for free trade proposal


BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) -- President Bush acknowledged Sunday that he had more work to do to persuade Brazil of the value of a vast proposed free-trade zone for the Western Hemisphere.


Wow.

I guess the part where you didn't like the way the free trade deal went in canada's favor, so you decided to totally ignore it and say "tough luck , we aint doing that even if we did agree to it" must really be stinging now. (NAFTA , lumber dispute, council ruled in canada's favor and the USA decided to simply ignore that)

I wonder what Brasil will do when you promise them something and then decide to stick it to them when it comes time to deliver ?

Hospital Visit : Oct 31 / 05

Ah...the beauty of Crohns Disease. Another Abcess popped out in my belly , hospitalizing me for 8 days. Just got out today.

Had to take Fragman injections everyday. That is to say , nurses had to give them to me. There was this one nurse called "Lucy" , but I just call her The Butcher. She's very good at talking. Stab you with a needle..oh you scream worse than me..stop that.
No empathy at all... she seems to think you're a car or something and she's an automechanic and you just turn the nob here, unscrew this... ignore the funny noises the car makes they're not important...

Well...for a needle I suppose thats not bad.

Unfortunately , they had to dig deep , DEEP down into my belly to remove the abcess, which was about half the size of my fist. And guess what ? Pain killers work great on your skin , but not so hot deeper down. Apparently there's no nerves (then how come I'm feeling pain if the'res no nerves .. never did get an answer to that) so down there below the skin, and since the pain killers are working on your nerves , it has no effect on deep down stuff.

IN other words, when they dug down deep, they were essentially working on me with no pain killers.

This would explain the howling and groaning and screaming like a little girl that I was going through when they dug that there hole in my belly.

Guess what ? The wound has to be packed. Every day. That means you slowly (painfully) pull out the old bandages and then poke new stuff in there. Every Day.

Yes. It's a scream fest.

If you yell loudly ... you hardly feel any pain ..did you know that ? Don't try and hold it in , let it all out. And when they ask you to be quiet , or can they put something in your mouth ? Tell them no, you've decided to share the experiance with the world , thank you very much.

Distractions also work ok. Have a second nurse there making jokes or even just get into a yelling contest with her to see who can yell the loudest. Anything to take your eyes of this big gaping wound that they're stuffing bandages down thats causing you to scream like a little girl in the first place.

And another thing. How do people get addicted to morphine ? They juiced me up on Deladin , a synthetic morphin , every time before they changed my bandages and packed my wound. the needle going in isn't bad, just a little prick , but it burns like HELL as they do the injection. And people are supposed to enjoy this ? My god there are a lot of deeply sick people out there.

US Lawmakers Agree : Internet should be controlled by USA

Lawmakers urge U.S. to keep control of Web


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. lawmakers are urging the Bush administration to resist a push from other countries to shift control of the Internet to the United Nations, arguing that such a move would stifle innovation and free expression.


I think I should run the internet ! I don't care what you think !!Arrr ! Me harty's ! Man the Gunsels ! Prepare for boarding ! Kill the women and children first !


Are you going to allow folks who have demonstrated a pattern of suppression of content, are they going to be put in charge of running this thing?" said Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman,

(further down in same article)

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) agreed to suspend work on a proposed .xxx domain name for sex sites after the Bush administration objected in August.


Arrr .. we'll be running the show matey ! And we'll decide what yea can and cannot see ..not some floosey in a turban from Iran ... arr matey ...

4% interest...why not bank online?

Article

This is got to be the most slanted "give me your money" article I have every seen !


NG Direct, a unit of ING Groep NV, recently raised its annual percentage yield (APY) to 3.40 percent from 3.30 percent while competitor EmigrantDirect, the online branch of New York-based Emigrant Savings Bank, is offering consumers a whopping 4 percent yield, up from 3.5 percent – making it the highest-yield account available.


In an age where virii and trojens routinely engage in identity theft where just visiting a web page can get your system trashed and billy boy gates has decided to do nothing about it but pay lip service and fud (fear , uncertainty, distrust among the competition) rather than fix his problems, you want people to go online for a lousy 4% ?


Internet security may also be a concern for consumers particularly as identity theft becomes an increasing problem for the banking industry. But online high-yield accounts generally have security measures in place.


"Generally have" means some do , some don't , or so they tell us. And no one discusses security issues with a reporter.


And if you're looking to have your hand held, online accounts are not for you. ING Direct, for instance, closes an average of 3 percent to 4 percent of accounts a month, when customers require too much personal service.

"We fire our customers is a colorful way of putting it," said ING Direct's Kuhlmann. "While the banking business says the customer is always right, we're online guys and you can only do business with us in a certain way."

He added that it just isn't cost effective to maintain high maintenance customers that need more personalized attention.


Oh , I'm sorry ! You got a virus that stole your personal information and now you're coming to us with this problem and making work for us ? We don't like to do work , we don't want you as a customer anymore !

I smell a disaster in the making, and a bunch of rich bankers saying "too bad ... not our problem" when it happens.

U.S. group irked at Canadians over salmon

Story


A coalition of U.S. utilities and sports fishing groups has threatened litigation if Washington doesn't renegotiate a Canadian salmon treaty.

The groups complain that, despite the Pacific Salmon Treaty, new DNA samples show nearly 90 percent of chinook caught by Canadian fishermen off the west coast of Vancouver Island come from the United States.



Let me get this straight.
There are some fish. They swim around in the ocean, across the border's so to speak.

Because sometimes, they are on the US side of the border, they are US fish. Because sometimes they are on the Canadian side of the border... well that doesn't count, does it ?

I mean really... it says right there in the article the candian fishermen were fishing in canadian waters... you laying claim to fish in some forien country's waters now ?

Get a life !

Only in the USA...

TiVo again

Story


TiVo and other digital video recorders let users skip commercials and jump around a recording quickly. Since TiVo introduced its DVR in the late 1990s, customers have enjoyed the ability to record anything they want, and store it indefinitely.

But last year, TiVo quietly disclosed that it would employ copyright-protection software from Macrovision Corp. for pay-per-view and video-on-demand programs. According to a post on TiVo's Web site, the software allows broadcasters to restrict how long a DVR can save certain recordings or in some cases prevent someone from recording altogether.


This goes under the heading of false advertising, specifically... making promises you can't keep.

TiVo is a box that sits on your TV that records TV shows.

Guess what ? The guys who make TiVo don't make the TV shows, those are different people entirely. And when the makers of those TV shows say "Don't record my show ! Or I'll sue you ! " guess what kind of position that puts TiVo in ?

They are renting out a service that they cannot deliver on , basically. It aint their movies. It aint their TV shows. They're in the position of a member of the general public taping movies to play back later instead of paying for them, thus violating the rights of the movie makers.

Dump TiVo , and infact TV , entirely. Buy a movie every two weeks, maybe a rush of purchases at the beginning to build up you're library there's always some cheap second hand stuff kicking around of old movies you can grab, and after that a movie a month is cheaper than any cable TV bill will ever be.

Blog Spam

Ottawa Boy


Anonymous said...

PRESS RELEASE: ABOUT THE BEST WORK FROM HOME PROSPECT AND WHY: Press Release From Google News about the site link below

Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!

I have a work from home site. It pretty much covers work from home opportunities.

Come and check it out if you get time :-)

Adrian



1) This was left as a comment to an article I just wrote. elapsed time ? perhaps 30 min from when I wrote it to when the comment apeared.

2) Aside from a nebulous "your site is great" there's no sign that anyone actually read the blog. Looks like some kind of automated posting mechanism.

3) It's advertising a work from home scam, one of the most ancient and venerated of rip off scams in the world, actually predating the internet itself.


What do you want to bet someone set up an automated program to search through all blogs and plant this on any new entries ? The creativity of spammers just never stops !

Of course the problem with spamming a blog is that I get to write about it ! Anyone reading the spam also reads my comments on what kind of scuzz ball you are.

OH , the work at home scam ?
You have to buy materials from them only , to build some gew gaw or another. And no matter how careful you are about building the thingy , your "quality of workmanship" is never considered good enough , so they never buy back the articles you produce, and you are stuck with a bunch of junk you bought from them until you give it up and walk away.

Democracy Vs Dictatorships

I have been considering the claims of the religious fundamentalists about Iraq and the US policy in the middle east for some time, and I have concluded that the religious fundamentalists are correct. The US really isn't wanted and shouldn't be sticking their nose in the business of other countries.


Well , sort of. Kind of ... maybe it's not all the way the way you think.

*evil grin*

The purpose of a democracy is to empower the people. The comman man. The guy on the ground who just goes to work every day driving a truck , or cutting hair, or digging ditches, or whatever he does to get by, he aint rich, he aint powerful, he's probably not even particularily handsome. He is The Common Man.

The purpose of a Dictatorship, or Religious Theocracy, or most any other form of government, is to empower a few "special" people , maybe the rich , maybe the priest hood, but some small minority of people living in that country , and basically to rape and pillage the majority and turn them into slaves and chattle. (Witness the Muslim minority in Iraq's treatement of the Majority muslim and Kurds ).

So ... when I say "The US really isn't wanted ... " the question becomes ... Who is it that is not wanting them ?

The answer is , of course... the priviledged few who are living high on the hog arn't interested in things changing.

The oppressed majority , being constantly raped and pillaged by their so called "lawful government" are all for change. Any change... nothing could be as bad as what they have right now , right ? Oh yes conquer and force a regime change, we'll try anything once !

Yup. The actions of the US are not apreciated among the ruling elite of the world. Of course, since the purpose of democracy is to knock those ruling elite off their golden thrones and stop them from raping and pillaging the common people of their countries...something they are loath to stop ... this would almost seem a trite statement. One would think it obvious they do not like the USA , and in fact can never like them.

This also dove tails into this whole "World Opinion" stuff I keep hearing , why does the world hate the US so ? Well... the world doesn't ... the only people you are hearing from are the elites in danger of being de-throned. The silent majority stays silent , and usually uninformed, because if they face a firing squad (or worse) for openning their big mouths and complaining about their current situation.

Just an opinion , just an opinion.

So .... when do we invade Syria and conquer them ? And who's next after that ?

(Edited to add this part)

This comes back to the futility of terrorism in Iraq.

I mean , lets face it. Under the old regime, the cops walked down the street , picked up people , demanded a kick back. If you didn't have the money in your pocket, they shot you. They found pictures of prisoners being tortured, graves with 100 000 people inside of them... not because they were criminals, but because they were the raped and pillaged majority and the "special minority" did as they pleased to them.

Remove that , and replace it with the odd suicide bomber every now and then.

No dice.

Hear about a suicde bomber three towns over every few days... or face the corrupt cop on the street picking your pocket and killing you if you object every day ...which are you going to choose ? Suicide bombers are wasting their time. And their lives. And the clerics that are pushing them into it are equilly futile. They actually have to go out of country to find suicide bombers because there arn't any inside Iraq willing to do the job. The Iraqi's are frustrated at the slow pace of reform the americans impose... but they sure as heck aint going back to what they had before..no way in hell they'll do that. They'll risk hell and high water to avoid that.

Two Teired Health

Article

So what is a Two Teired Health care system ?

Well... this is a system where by the public health care system takes care of the poor people , like me , and the rich people get to jump ahead in line by going to private clinics , which charge a lot more than the government rates. Which most people can't pay , so there's a very short line up , and so they basically queue jump to the head of the line.

Oh ... and the doctors get paid more in private clinics. And they don't have to work as hard.

Which , if you're a smart doctor , means leaving public service behind and working for a private clinic only, for rich people only. But if you're a a dumb doctor, the rich peoples clinics won't have you , so you're stuck in public service.

Oh , and the rich peoples doctors ? They don't want the hard cases, only the easy ones that occur most commonly and are easy to fix. Hard cases they dump on the public health care system, because hey , Crohns Disease (as an example) only affects 7 people in 100 000 , so it's just not cost effective to bother with it. Leave it to the dumb doctors too stupid to work in the private sector of rich people.

Oh , and you're only mediocre rich ? You may use the rich peoples clinic until you run out of money , then back to the public sector for you with all the dumb doctors. Basically we fleece you for every dime and then dump you.

So how would I fix this ?

I was talking to a nurse recently , and she points out that the government deliberately limites the number of doctors, refusing to train more than 250 in a year even though thousands apply for the position.

Why are we even talking about a two tiered health care system when the government is already imposing an artificial shortage of doctors ? Just stop imposing the artificial limit, thats all. Whats your problem ?

Greed , of course is the problem. It all comes down to money. Some special interest group , probably the doctors themselves or some medical council , doesn't want to flood the market with doctors, their salaries might go down !

Stupid , self inflicted problem. I hate this.

Mind My Mask

Article


WASHINGTON (AFP) - A suspected American member of Al-Qaeda threatened attacks against Los Angeles and the Australian city of Melbourne in a videotape shown by ABC television on the fourth anniversary of September 11.


The threat was made by Adam Gadahn, a US national who converted to Islam


oops ! But I was wearing a mask when I made that tape ! Honest !


"Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, God willing," said the warning.


It would have to be with god willing, because it certainly aint going to happen with ninnies like you in charge !


"We are Muslims. We love peace, but peace on our terms, peace as laid down by Islam, not the so-called peace of occupiers and dictators."


In other words , WE WANT TO BE THE OCCUPIERS AND DICTATORS ! Yeah right. Check out the article link , nice beard buddy.



ABC said US intelligence believed the man who appears on the tape is Gadahn, who comes from Orange County, California. He made a similar tape last year that US intelligence said was authentic.


Oops..pardon my mask. Didn't know it was optional.

Iran 5 years from nukes

Article

"We estimate, if everything goes right, if they throw all their effort into solving their problems, they might be able to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear weapon within five years," Gary Samore, editor of a new report, told BBC radio.


Ha ha. How about you have it today ?

Grind up some nuclear waste to powder, put it in a crop duster plane , over fly an enemy city. (Israel , in the case of these muslims) , start dumping.

Ditto mixing in said poweder waste to a couple of slabs of c-4 explosive and plantting them somewhere provocative. True it's not a "nuclear explosion" but the dust makes a hell of a mess.

These weapons inspectors couldn't find snow in the middle of winter. You want to allow these muslim terrorist / suicide bombers access to any kind of nuclear material ? Even just waste products that can't possibly go nuclear ? Yer crazy.

And so is Iran.

A while back the US ran photo's from its sattalites of the damb being built in egypt somewhere. Nice pictures of tunnels hidden underneath and everything. It was meant as a message to the russions (enemies at the time friends today) that their hidden missile silo's arn't so hidden.

Last year a tunnel connecting the us / canada border was spotted before it was even completed , cops waiting on both sides for the first load of drugs to go through before arresting everyone in sight. Anyone wanna guess how they spotted the tunnel ?

Anyone wanna guess on the odds of Irans nuclear reactor , no matter how well hidden , getting a visit by some high altitude bombers just before completion ?

If they're smart , this is just some political boondoggle to get some aid money out of the west. But they're a muslim state, they're probably not smart. They're probably trying to REALLY produce a nuclear weapon , with intention of lobbing it at their ancient enemy Israel. Religion and nuclear weapons . yech !

Hmmm... Bush is pushing some anti-abortion pro-prayer guy to the supreme court isn't he ? And he has nukes and is pretty churchy himself isn't he ?

yech !

Operation Go Home

Finally. The big day , or a big day.

Aug 30th. I'm allowed a light breakfast , and then clear fluids for the rest of the day
until midnight, because after midnight I have to fast , and then they operate on me
tommorow.

Heck with it. Don't eat anything , drink lots of water and apple juice. Check my pills,
the anti-biotics have run out. Phone the doctor, forget it ! I'm going in tomorow, he'll
worry about it then I can live for one day without anti biotics.

Drink my laxitive solution (which tasts terrible despite the lemon symbol on the front)
go to the bathroom a lot, go to bed early.

My freind shows up around 8pm , we go cruising. I'm allowed clear fluids right ? Jello
counts according to all the nurses. So we hit a grociery store in our travels and I
buy up some jello.

Go home. Man, that jello tastes good. Too good. Normaly I hate jello. Start hunting
all over the lable. IN really tiny print it says "Jello pudding" . PUdding. It isn't jello
at all.

AHHHH... I just blew my diet ! I'm gonna get in trouble !

Aug 31
I drink half a glass of water, get dressed, my sister escorts me down to the
hospital . Smoke a cigarette (she does , I'm a non smoker) and we go in. They have
to "prepare me" , which seems to involve stripping me naked , making me put on a
hospital gown , and a cruel and vicious nurse sticking an unusually painful IV in
my arm. I mean really , normally I only whimper when they do it, but I had to actually
yell on this one. I guess I drew one of the incompetant ones.

11am , I'm lying in bed. Looking at the clock. Surgury is at 1am. Sister comes in. we
chat for a bit. Then the nurse comes in , wants me to put on some special stockings
that help prevent blood clots after surgery (among other things). We make jokes about
me staring in the rocky horror picture show, getting a felt marker and drawing
fish netting on the stalkings. It kills a few hours. She goes out for lunch, I catch some
zz's in a fairly uncomfortable hospital bed.

2pm rolls around. The previous patient is taking longer than expected. But thats ok.
3pm Me and my sister chat computers and look at the clock a lot.
4pm Doctor shows up . Surgury is cancelled, we'll reschedule in a couple of weeks,
call in the morning.
AHHHHHH.... I've been starving for 2 days now and thats all you can tell me ???

Get dressed. Go home. PIG OUT !
Phone work. Guess I'm going in tommorow after all.
remind me to get a doctors note for this.

I don't feel so bad about the jello chocolate pudding any more. In fact, the moment I got home, it was the first thing I finished off.

Bye Bye TV

And I thought I was the only one who hated TV.

News Article



If you're a young Canadian between the ages of 18 and 34, you likely don't spend a lot of time in front of a television set. You're much more likely to be online, downloading music and movies, and playing games. You want choice. You want control.

In short, you're already scaring the pants off television producers and advertisers everywhere.

The internet is now the medium of choice for young Canadians. A recent Ipsos-Reid poll shows that Canadians aged 18 to 34 spend an average of 14.7 hours a week online and 11.7 hours listening to radio – a strong second-place finish for a medium once thought to be on the decline due to the internet's growing influence.

Television comes up third with 11.6 hours of average weekly viewing.


This is very interesting , as I sit here on my computer, listening to my mp3 player loaded up with downloaded music, bored because my favorite online game , World of Warcraft , is down right now and won't let me log in. (they always have problems... too many players I think. )

There is a TV in the living room, and because my internet is through the cable tv lines, I get some basic TV on it that I'm not paying for. But it's crap, and I wouldn't pay for it anyways. And , as you probably guessed by now, I'd rather be blogging and surfing the internet than watching the Boob Toob as I like to call it.

Behind me lies a selection of over 100 DVD's , favorite movies I've picked up over time , one here one there. I throw one into my computer every now and then and watch it when I'm really bored. The video place across the street offers trade in's, they'll buy you're old DVD's , but I don't do that. I want my collection to get larger , not smaller. I don't plan on dumping any of them. About once every two weeks I pick up another dvd to add to the collection. Maybe once a week in summer / fall when a spate of good ones come out.

My favorite TV show to quote (not to actually watch , I don't even know if it even runs anymore) is called This Hour Has 22 Minutes, the title being a comment on the fact that if you pull out a stop watch and time the TV for an hour, only 22 minutes of actual show will be there, and 38 minutes of commercials. Something that rings in my head every time I get dragged over to a friends place and they turn on the boob tube and a commercial pop's up.

There was a show called Highlander once, I rented a tape on it. Sucker ,it wasn't the movie, it was two tv episodes back to back. TV episodes. With the comercials removed. Ran 45 minutes for both episodes (according to the cover). Now if that doesn't turn you off TV (assuming you were searching for the TV version and not the original movie) nothing will.

Bye Bye Television.
I won't miss you.

CT Head Scan - Help Wanted

They're going to operate on me again in two days. Today I went in for a CT scan (Cat scan , whatever ). I should mention they're going to operate on my belly , and that they told me I would be drinking some kind of horrible stuff so I was to show up at 9:45am even though the scan wasn't until 11am.

Walk in , give my name. "So , how bad is it going to taste ? "
"Is what going to taste ? " asked the nurse.
"They said I'm supposed to drink this ugly stuff, thats why you want me in here early."
"Oh no. It's a head scan. You don't drink anything. "
?
"You're going to take pictures of my head ?"
"Yes. "
"But they're going to operate on my belly ? "
She looked at me.
I pull up my shirt and show her this ugly bandage on my belly with a tube running from it and everything. "I dont' think the doctor is going to be impressed with a few shots of my head when it comes time for him to cut open my belly. I think he wants shots of my belly , personally. "
Sighes, picks up the phone.

The new ... whatever it is , constrast liquid they make you drink so they can x ray you ? Tastes like water. But you wind up going the bathroom every twenty minutes for the rest of the day. Yah win some you lose some.

Got to watch hurricane Katrina coverage. Just one reporter repeating the same thing over and over. Down to catagory 4 storm, The Big Easy (New Orleans) about to get wiped. Foggy pictures of rain. Boring. Why did those people build a city 6 feet below sea level anyways ? I privately think New Orleans might not be there tommorow. We'll see.

Brother Love Hussein

Story

A letter from Saddam Hussein


"My soul and my existence is to be sacrificed for our precious Palestine and our beloved, patient and suffering Iraq," the letter said.


Tell me again about the 100 000 muslims you had executed because they were Shiite's and you were Sunni ? In effect, wrong kind of muslim kill them all...


"Life is meaningless without the considerations of faith, love and inherited history in our nation," the letter said.


Tell me again about how you invaded your neibours for oil because the kick back they were giving you wasn't big enough ? Desert Storm , Kuwaite , remember that ?


In addressing his correspondent, Saddam said: "My brother, love your people, love Palestine, love your nation, long live Palestine."


Unless they're the wrong kind of muslim. Or some other religion. Then kill them all.

Jordan rockets miss US Navy ship

Story

Three missiles have been fired from the Jordanian port of Aqaba, missing a US Navy ship but hitting Israel.

Two rockets missed the USS Ashland, an American naval ship docked in the port. A Jordanian soldier died when one of the two missiles hit the dockside.

The third missile landed near Eilat airport in neighbouring Israel, causing no injuries.

An internet statement, purportedly from a group which says it has links to al-Qaeda, said it was to blame.


I have to wonder. How did that internet statement read ?

Dear Infidel Dogs.
We the undersigned Terrorists did willingly and with premediatation fire off some rockkets at you. WE have to tell you about this on the internet because they kind of missed and didn't actually hit anything but our own people whom we are protecting, but you should be afraid of us anyways.

Get out , or we'll shoot more of our rockets at you. Maybe they might even hit you this time , instead of our own people.

Sincerely ,

Incompetant Terrorists Incoporated.

Softwood Lumber $ting

Story


Washington says its dispute with Ottawa over imports of Canadian softwood can only be settled by negotiation.

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins said that, despite a North American Free Trade Agreement ruling this month that U.S. duties of 21 percent on imported Canadian softwood were illegal, his government would keep imposing the duties, worth about $100 million per month, the CBC reported Thursday.


Lemme see.

You negotiated to create NAFTA for a solid year , to solve this particular dispute (pardon me , I'm a canadian , I've been hearing about about the softwood lumber thing since I was a little kid and I'm over 40 now, so this has been going on for several decades)

You finally set up a council to solve it, it issues a decision...

I don't like the decision .. I'm not abiding by it.

*sigh*

Kiss Nafta goodbye. You just killed it.

You also killed any reputation America might have had of keeping it's promises. Why would anyone bother to negotiate with you over anything when in the end , if you don't like it , you just tear it all up and throw it away ?

Americans !

http://www.byebyekarla.com/

Ottawa Boy
Who is Dave Homenuck ?
Dave Homenuck was the original webmaster who felt it was his civic duty to jeapordize the personal security of Karla Homolka upon her release in
2005. His vulgar website the Karla Homolka death pool, encouraged users to place bets on the date of her demise (but encouraged patrons not to kill her themselves as that would be cheating) and posted the email addresses of those who contacted him to protest the existance of such a website.

Upon learning of this site the Canadian Coalition Against The Death Penalty purchased the URL to prevent
Mr. Homenuck and others like him from continuing to endorse the murder of Karla Homolka upon her release.

actually, I kind of agree with this. Mob Rule has always been a bad thing, even in these cases. Some smuck posting a Lets Kill So and So site doesn't sit well with me , no matter what her crimes. Lets the cops deal with it.

Radical Muslim Cleric to Return to Britain

Ottawa Boy

Story


LONDON - A fundamentalist Muslim cleric facing possible treason charges said Tuesday that he left Britain over the weekend and was in Lebanon but planned to return within weeks unless the government says he is unwelcome.


You're facing treason charges. I think you can take it as gospel that you're unwelcome.


He told British Broadcasting Corp. radio he had left Britain on Saturday to avoid being used by the government to pressure British Muslims with new measures. Bakri, who has lived in Britain for 20 years, said he traveled to Lebanon and was staying with his mother.


Sheesh ! Just because a few people got killed by bombs and you praised them ! And now the british bobbies want you to say blowing people up is a bad thing and you don't want to play ball ? Shocking !


But he insisted he would not inform British police if he knew Muslims were planning an attack.

"Islam forbids me to report any Muslim ... to the British police," Bakri said. "My job (is) to stop him, to hold him with my Muslim brothers even if it costs me my life."


we know. Because all non muslims are second class citizens and your job is to make their life hard until they convert.

Or they decide to make your life hard and boot you out or throw you in prison for being a pain. One way or the other ...

20-year mission in Afghanistan

Ottawa Boy

News Article

"Every time you kill an angry young man overseas, you're creating 15 more who will come after you," he said.

We have to worry about ticking them off ? What about them ticking us off ? That rule applys to the 3000 americans who died in the world trade center you know. And judging by the number of terrorists that keep getting deported here in canada because they have ties, or they were taking photo's of Parliment hill for their friends in Afghanistan to plan an operation or something , we're a target too !

All of this blather about don't tick off the terrorists, but they're already doing what they can to hit us, You can't tick them off any more than they already are.

Kick them in the balls, and when they fall kick them a few more times until they're out of it. What is this soft pedal stuff ? They're killing innocent civilians. Kill them all.

That could be me hopping on a bus and getting caught by some suicide bomber next, and at that point my sympathy for their cause is zero.

The Missing Part

Ottawa Boy

I'ts friday. I finally met with my doctor. Where upon he stuck another hose up my *ahem* with a camera on the end to look around, that was painful in itself.

Oh yes.. hte part they couldn't replace. I'll just send you over to surgery for that. No prob... just a little screw on thing it will take them 15 minutes ...

Surgury looks it over. Nope. There's a little tiny string or something inside that part that goes all the way up the hose and inside, or some strange thing like that. It can't be replaced without removeing the entire drain and putting in a brand new one.

Which is precisely what they did.

Litocain (sp?) needles hurt like heck ! But at least when it was in It was painless.

Now I know why no one carried that part. You have to go into the operating room with a doctor and 3 nurses and the whole nine yards to replace it. Not something you want to let a home care worker mess worth.

*sigh*

Fatal Jaywalker

Ottawa Boy

(article)


A cousin of Menezes, Alex Alves Pereira, said his family was upset and angry over the death, and he challenged police statements that he failed to obey orders, and jumped a ticket barrier at the Stockwell Underground station in south London.


To jaywalk. A term I ( in canada) associate with walking across the street in the middle of the road , or otherwise not at the usual crosswalk.

Thats what our friend the Brit / Brazilian worker who ran from the cops did. Why ? Because British cops typically don't carry guns , so hey , why not run from them ? It's a big fine to be caught sneaking on the train or jaywalking or some other minor traffic penalty. I bet people run from the british bobbies all the time.

And in these openning days of terrorism on the Brits where suddenly all the rules have changed , those slow to adapt to the changing circumstances get caught in the crossfire.

In the end I will lay you long odds that "Jean Charles de Menezes" was jaywaking or some such , had a long history of such petty traffic offences , and simply had no clue that the cops were suddenly armed and willing to kill.

I am somewhat concearned that they found his heavy coat suspicious (I'm using a similar dodge to hide a medical problem of my own ) but then again ... up here in canada, the cops have been armed for most of my life, if not all of it , and my first reaction would be to stop and raise my hands. I havn't run for anything , not even the bus, in over a decade.

In the end , this is an incidental traffic hazard. Don't run from the cops and you're fine.

8 Wasted Hours

Ottawa Boy

My Crohns Disease gave me an Abcess (look it up , it's desgusting). The solution was to attach a hose to this big golf ball sized lump in my stomach and let it drain into a bag for two weeks or so , then take the bag off when it stopped draining. Desgusting, but they gave me a doctors note for one week and I called work and got a weeks vacation for the following week , so I aint dragging that bag anywhere.

Home care worker comes in to deal with the "Drain" as they call it every day. Notices a piece on it is cracked and tends to leak some times. Oh we don't have that part. Turns out the home care worker has complete replacement parts for every piece of the drain. Except that one little piece. Tapes it up , orders me to the hospital. Well, it's saturday night, the wait time will be impossible, how about 6 am sun morning ? ok

Arrive at the hospital at 6am.
Actually get to see someone ( a nurse, not a doctor) at 11am. 5hours wasted sitting on an uncomfortable waiting room chair. Get put in a little examination room. Nurse comes in , looks over the tubing. Her response ? "We don't have that part. "
Yeah , I know. No one has that part. But you guys put it in !

Two hours later , a surgeon , two other nurses , and one "expert scavanger" nurse who apparently have been everywhere and seen everything drop by , look at and declare "I have no idea what that is. " to the part.

Eventually , around 2pm, they tape it up with water proof tape, nicely give me the roll of tape for my home care worker, and send me home with instructions to phone my doctor.

They dont' have that part. They have every other part for the drain, except that one.
8 hours in the hospital ... down the drain...

Karla Homolka

Judge denies serial killer media seclusion
Nationally reviled Canadian serial killer Karla Homolka has lost her court bid to keep the media away from her after her pending release from prison. Homolka, 35, was due to be released from a Quebec prison either Thursday or Monday ...

You're a serial killer, and you're getting out of jail at 35 ? So ... 3 people dead at your hands ... 15 years in jail ... the price of a human life in canada is 5 years in the slammer then eh ? I think you can live with a few flash bulbs going off in your face for the next few years until the circus dies down Homolka. It wont kill you , yah know !

However, Justice Paul-Marcel Bellavance denied the motion for the woman, who has legally changed her surname to Teale.


Hello Karla Teale !!!! Trying to dodge the lime light eh ? Nice try.


One day or other, after 12 years of detention, Karla Teale will have to face the Canadian public and the Canadian media


Actually , you can just slamb the door shut in their face and ignore the constant trampling on your lawn. And I'm sure you can find a great job as a female wrestler somewhere. The Canadian Terror or some such , you'll be famous, you can make a mint off this Homolka ! I mean Teale ! If you have any acting ability at all I'm sure half the movie houses in Canada and The States would love to cast you as an evil Villianess !


Under a plea bargain, she was not charged in the death of her 15-year-old sister, who died in 1990 after choking on her own vomit when she was drugged and raped by Homolka and her husband Paul Bernardo, who is serving a life sentence.


You did your own little sister ? And you got off scott free on that one ? Precocious !

Canadian Drugs

Canada to regulate drug exports to U.S.


The Canadian government is drafting legislation to regulate drug exports to the United States, and curb them if necessary to prevent domestic shortages.

Canada cannot be the drugstore of the United States of America, Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh told reporters Wednesday.

He said new regulations were needed because he expects the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that would allow large imports of prescription drugs, most of them sold online.


Ummm... what ?


Dosanjh said he was willing to consult with the industry that employs 5,000 people as the law was being drafted.


Ok...so an industry of 5000 people are managing to supply a population of 300 million with drugs. I'm not seeing a problem here. I heard rumours that a population of 30 million cannot hand over it's drug supply to a population of 300 million ...but I mean .. another 5000 , or even 50 000 , workers cranking out prescription drugs and selling them... thats just good for the country.

Why am I not seeing a problem on the Canadian side ? But I do see a problem on the American side, specifically the American Pharmacy Industry who's been overcharging the american public for years and would like to continue their practices. Sometimes I really gotta wonder who's dumping money where. Is it at all possible that our Hundred Million Dollar Man is getting his pocket lined just a little bit more with this business at the backing of these american drug corperations ?

I really gotta wonder sometimes.

Man are those cows ever Mad !

Yahoo Mad Cow Disease Article

Tue Jun 28, 5:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The latest case of mad cow disease has brought new talk of a national livestock tracking system, something the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee says the beef industry can create more quickly than the government.

So the beef industry , who's losing massive amounts of money in sales , is going to get the job of blowing the horn when they themselves produce a bad product ? How often do you think they're going to sound the alert ?

The industry is hoping to persuade the department to use the cattlemen's system instead of its own. Other groups of livestock producers are also resisting the idea of a mandatory system.

Oh no Mr Government Official ! We don't want someone else to watch us make and sell sick cows ! We'll do that ourselves ! Trust us ! Honest ! We can pretend to be neutril observers even though our very lively hoods are at stake here and we'd basically be ratting ourselves out ! This WILL work , honest !!!!

"We definitely do not believe that this should be a top-down operation where folks here in Washington know best how cattle producers should keep track of their cattle," Goodlatte said. "And we definitely do not believe the government should have control of this information, except when they need it."

"We definately will not tell you diddly squat if we can get away with it , that would seriously hurt our bottom line"

Not everyone likes the idea of an industry-run system. "You shouldn't have profiteering take place on a system that's for safety purposes," said Jess Peterson, spokesman for a rival cattle producers' group, R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America. "You need to have it run through the government."

Only smart thing I read in the whole news article.

So , The US is complaining that Japan and a few other places don't want their beef anymore ? And this is their solution ? Well if they didn't want it before , you think they're going to want it after you do this ???

Politics and medicine just don't mix. But they're trying , they're trying.

Elektra

Movie Review Time : Elektra

The hundred million dollar man is still in office, blah . More bombings in Iraq. Junk everyone talks about and knows about. Maybe I'll review a movie today.

Elektra

Staring Jennifer Garner (2005)

Don't expect a sequil to the Daredevil movie. They completely stole the charactar and dumped her into a new place. They also stole Stick , Daredevil's mentor , and put him up as her trainer.

Special Effects have now become passé , even an obviously b-rated movie like this one has good ones, though they are few and far between. Mostly you will see a lot of martial arts action and fighting.

The tale is that Elektra is an assassin for hire , out to kill some kid, then decides she can't do it. The Hand , Marvel Comics favorite martial arts villian group, gets a little miffed at her for that , and starts sending waves of assassins at her.

Interesting that while they steal Stick from Daredevil , they can't be bothered to stick with Elektra's background from the daredevil movie, they make a new one and ignore that.

Anyways, she's an excellent fighter it seems, but she's either overwhelmed by sheer numbers, or by an elite group of martial artists who actually have magical powers of one sort or another (thats where the special effects come in ) and she doesn't.

The movie is a good one , I would buy it on DVD when the prices go down , but I wouldn't go to the theatre for it. It isn't that great.

It is marred by a lot "emtpiness" . Most everything seems to take place out in the wilderness or in small rooms where there are no back ground actions going on , and there's only a very small number of people on screen at a time. I'm not sure if its the lack of extra's or they really should work more on the back ground music... but that empty feeling can be annoying sometimes. if I want to enjoy nature, I'll take a walk in the park , not put a dvd in the player.

Worthwhile ... but nothing special. Dont bother to try and find links to the Daredevil movie it's a hash job that stands by itself.

Minor Medical Thoughts

Ottawa Boy

I do have company insurance, i just never bothered to look it up. Gave the doctor the form, he'll fill it out in a week or so , don't you have a family doctor for this sort of thing ?

Well, as a matter of fact ... thats kind of a long story in itself ...

Note to self. Find a forum where they talk about Crones Disease and put a link on my home page. Might as well start trading rumours early.

Looking back at the experiance, it's easy to see the doctors and nurses did their level headed best to find out what was wrong with me and make me well. But when you're actually going through it , and no one tells you nothing ? MAAAANNNNN !!!!! You brought that complaining upon yourself. Sorry, nature of your business.

Thanks anyways though.

12 days of lying in bed with my feet up. My bum leg doesn't bother me any more. I can even jump up and down on it , one legged (and I'm a heavy guy) with no pain. Walk normal and everything.


Note to self: Find a family doctor.

Crones Disease

Ottawa Boy
There were a few more tests. But they were nothing , just simple x-rays, the vampire nurse showing up at my bedside every second day to take her quota of blood, I didn't scream when they jabbed me anymore. (The floor nurses are as bad as the emergancy nurses by the way, except for this one nurse who'd been there for years and years, turned out all she did was take blood... again when this expert did it there was no pain at all, didn't even feel the prick. Dang Emergancy Nurse Vampires ! )
Ten days in the hospital under their minstrations and either no food and water at all or just an iv and a few liquids I'm allowed, I'm now two belt sizes smaller.
Biopsies came back. It's not cancer. They're still debating what it is.
Family came down from Toronto after hearing I have cancer. Took a day off work and everything. Got me a hospital TV and a phone and everything. I didn't have the heart to tell them I hate TV. This whole 22 minutes of show and 38 minutes of comercial in an hour.. you're half how tv show is only 11 minutes of show ? Waste of my time ! Brother brought me in a lap top and sister a computer toy of her own as well. But the TV was costing them mony , and you can't borrow money for the rent from them if you let them blow it all on a TV you don't even use , right ? Pretty much was point blank about it. Get rid of the TV. 10$ a day is just ridiculous. Thats 300 a month and they planned on keeping it up as long as it I was in. Get rid of it quick so they'd still have money I could bum from them if need be.

Yes, during my whole hospital visit, I had visions of being told "you're cured ! You can go home now ! " ... " what home ? I missed the rent and they booted me out and I'm now homeless" dancing in my head. The nurse told me I needed to concentrate on other matters and quit worry about it , but what other matters ? You just agree to whatever savagery the doctors want to inflict upon you and wait it out, the rent I could do something about that I couldn't, what do you mean I need other priorities ?

Long story short, I have Crones Disease, a disease with no known cause and no known cure. They think , maybe , it's your immune system attacking your intestines thinking it's a forien object or something, maybe, thats their going theory, but it's not proven. It was hard to diagnose in my case ( ie: many many tortures inflicted upon me) because It usually only attack's the upper small intestines and leaves the lowers alone, but I'm special. Me it was the Colon only and my small intestines turned out to be free of it.
They kept me in suspense for a few days over whether they were going to chop out about 90% of my colon and stitch up the remainder or not, but the fact that that only gives me a "fresh start' , it might and usually did flare up again later anyways, no matter what they did , probably decided them against it.
Drugs, some kind of steroids to reduce inflammation. Tapper it off after two weeks since long term steroids are bad, and wait for the next flare up.
Since I'd been living with minor symptoms of the disease for well on 10 years now before it flared up bad, with no treatement at all. the notion that yea, after they clear up this bout it could be 5 , even 10 more years before the next flare up , seemed pretty reasonable to me. And if the med's stopped working , and if in 5 or 10 years new meds didn't show up on the scene to replace the old's that stopped working , then they operate anyways.
Basically it was a race. I only have so many years left to live, and with flare ups 5 - 10 years apart... I could expect to make it through the rest of my life on meds only. They would only have to fool my immune system a few times before it caught on and made them stop working.
Of course, there's the fact that my face will swell up like a chickmunk while I'm on these steroids, and probably my ankles too... but my prescription only reads for two weeks. Thats livable.
Now my only question was ... how much are these steroids gonna cost me ? Have to hit the pharmacy and find out.

Random Medical Tortures

Ottawa Boy

They gave me a fleet enima. It was'nt bad. This realy thin thing stuck up the down stair case, squirt a little liquid in , hold it for at least two minutes, then go to the bathroom and dump it. I only groaned loudly when it went in , no real screaming per say. It was part of the go-LYTELY thingy to clean me out for the camera. Now that hurt !

Barium Enima. Gonna do the same thing with that little tiny thing the pain will be over in an instant , they'll snap some x-rays, no problem. I'm actually getting used to the pain. Just get it over with quick , don't hesitate to scream a time or two if neccesary, and you barely notice it anymore.
WRONG !!!!!!
They gonna stick this much bigger hose in you. With an air bag on the end , on the end thats INSIDE YOU by the way , so it blocks the way out, and they gonna dump HUGE amounts of barium in there and then they gonna take their pictures.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH !
The doctor was pissed. I leak like a sieve it seems when you try to stick a hose in there and pump it full of liquid. GOOD ! It's about time they got some of their own back. You're not supposed to be sticking hoses and stuff up peoples backsides and pumping them up like a water balloon ! I have no sympathy at all for them.
But I was pissed when I found out later that they didn't actually have to clean up the mess, they just called house keeping and got some kind of janitor nurse or first year student or something to deal with it.
The student nurse training with the doctor tried to remove my IV ( thats a story in itself. They tried to give me a shot to relax me with it, didn't work...figured out the IV was toast and gave me a regular shot ... AGAIN ... the doctor was an expert , didn't feel a dang thing, just a tiny prick and that was it ... dang vampire emergancy nurses ! ) any ways, she was picking at the tape and slowly , every so slowly peeling it off. AHHHHH !
Shoo'd her away. You just hold the ive thingy there. Yes. Rip ! Yelp, tape is gone pull the IV out. One little yelp and it was over, not this on going torture thing.
"Wow, I'm impressed. You did that yourself. "
"Since I"ve been here my pain threshold has gotten much higher. " I inform her.
"Thats ... not a good thing. "
"I know. "

I didn't know it at the time, they let me suffer in ignorance and depression for several more days thinking I had cancer, but this is the test that the doctor just glanced at and decided that's not cancer , it's something else. But we'll get to that later. At least my suffering was getting me somwhere ... so I should be fair about the savagery I was suffering.

Then they decided that they didn't want just x'rays of my lower intestine. Now they wanted the whole shebang, from top to bottom x'rayed. My doctor came in. Informed oh no , it's just a little glass of fluid , only about THIS big , you just drink it down and wait a bit and they start snapping x-rays, no big deal really.
How bad could it be ? Even if it tasted vile I could choke down a small glass fairly quickly , couldn't I ?
it was a BIG HUGE HONKING glass of white stuff. Some kind of vile vanilla like flavor. I downed about half of it while the nurse was babbling on about how i had ten minutes to finish it off or they'd have to start over ... and I had to stop. GROSS !
Oh my god, start over ? This stuff ? I choke the rest of it down over the next eight or so minutes, nightmares of go LYTELY dancing in my head, moaning loudly and long so everyone in the near by vicinity knew I wasn't having a good time.
The nurse came back and told me flatly. Quite complaining and drink it . You're almost out of time. I handed her the empty glass before she could finish her little speach. "Can I have some water ? This stuff is truely vile. "
No water, but they did wipe it off my face. Or should I say scrub it off. It had the consistancy of childrens paste , and it stuck to everything, it would probably make a good glue.
Well , the actual x-rays were no problem. No hoses or anything. Lie on your back , good , turn to your left, good... wait half an hour for the stuff to get a little farther down , yes you can go to the bathroom while you're waiting ... almost a relief really , no torture at all. No water to drink, but no pain.

Savage Doctors

Ottawa Boy
I wait until saturday morning. About 5:30 am.
My in with my fave taxi driver to avoid the ravages does me no good because , guess what ? He works late into the night. He's asleep right now.
I' aint bussing it. Not when I'm throwing up at random with little or no warning. Ambulence time.
They go slow , put me on a thin, uncomfortable stretcher. Rag me about how busy the hospital is on saturday mornings. Get there, the waiting room is empty. Yeah , right. You guys are real jokers. I mentally pat myself on the back for avoiding the rush hour and getting a decent nights sleep out of the deal.
Vampiric Nurse. Lets just get a few blood samples going here ... OWWWWWW !
Oh, you're here because you throw up ? Put me on a stretcher right away. Bonus. I can lie down and snooze. Lucky too.
THIRTEEN AND A HALF HOURS LATER , thats right , 13.5 hours ! I get admitted. I protest ! Thats a rediculous wait time ! Thats Insane !
I was prepared. Bag loaded up with books, change of underwear, the whole nine yards. This was the second time in a week after all.
Oh , I really shouldn't complain about the wait. I got an x-ray and a SECOND cat-scan during that waiting period. Did I mention george had to wait a year to get one cat scan and I'd now had two in the same week ? Ok , I'm a complainer, but truth be known george didn't tell me about his year long wait until after this incident , so yeah , I was pissed.
There is a special torture , I mean treatment , in the hearts of all doctors. It's called go-LYTELY (prounounced "go lightly") . Basically they mix up 4 liters (that's right LITERS ! Almost an Imperial Gallon ! ) of this stuff and you gotta drink it so they can do a test of some kind tommorow. So start drinking.
Well... it tasted kind of neutril at first. Then it tasted sickly. Then vile... then it got bad.
The whole night , and until like 3pm the next day , I didn't sleep . I didn't eat. All I did was sip at this go-LYTELY slime and try not to barf it up. It was an unending nightmare ! When I did doze off for a moment All I dreampt about was that it was time for me to take another sip of pig snot , the clock is running , you gotta get this into you or they gonna make you start all over with ANOTHER four liters if the stuff expires.
4 oclock in the after noon rolls around. I got like 90% of the stuff into me. It's flushing out the other end like a water fall. Good enough. They can do their test now.
Yeah ! The nighmare ends ! Hurray !
So , whats that hose thing you're holding in your hand ? Attached to this big rack of equipment including a video camera ? Oh , well now that we've flushed out your lower intestines and got it nice and squeaky clean ? We're going to stick this camera up there and have a look around.
YOU'RE GOING TO DO WHAT ????
Well.. I'm almost done. How bad can it be ? And they were going to give me some kind of narcotics to relax you. People do this sort of thing for entertainment right ? Homosexuals and stuff ? You always hear stories of them winding up in the hospital because they had some object , even a glass or something stuck up there. It can't be THAT bad !
Apparently they could here the screaming from the far side of the hospital.
It's jammed. It's blocked, it won't go in any farther.
Oh my god please stop.
Don't worry , i"m an expert ! Jam it harder !
AAAAAHHHHHHH !!!!
Hmm... still doesn't fit. Oh well. Still got some good images , just can't do the whole colan. And we'll take a biopsy and see what shows up.
People do this for entertainment ? Pain is fun ?
Sigh... it's finally over.
My sister , and my brother, and my friend george has shown up. We chat with the nurse while the doctor is writing stuff up he'll talk to me in a few moments.
"Do we know what it is ? " I ask.
"Yes, but I can't tell you. "
"Is it curable ? "
"Yes. "
Ok then.
Doctor walks in.
"Don't worry , she said it was curable. You can say it in front of them, I don't mind. "
Doctor looks at this small crowd of people, and then at me. Sigh. Says one word.
"Cancer. "

First Hospital Visit

Ottawa Boy
Congratulations. You have "diver ticulitus" (probably misspelled it) . Basically small holes in your colon ( the part of your intestine just before the digested food exits your body) and it leaks, causing an abcess. That's what we're feeling on our tests. Will just give you some anti-bodies for a few days and yer out of here.

This kills monday and tuesday , my days off, with me hooked up with a constant iv in my arm leaking stuff into me. Wednesday they kick me out.

A HUNDRED AND TWENTY THREE dollars in anti-biotics ? And I had to pay that cash out of pocket too since I don't have insurance. I pay up and keep the receipte. I noticed something or other on my company web site about insurance. Never checked into it, but for a hundred plus bucks that would be the first order of business when I get home.
Well , my doctors note carries me over so I don't have to go to work until tuesday. But monday is queen victorias day , double time and a half , but you have to work the day before as well. And my work schedule has me booked for sunday and monday. And all I do is sit at a desk and answer phones, I can go back a little early , right ? So I'll just lounge around until saturday, maybe even show up at work saturday just to make it look good, and hey, it's a free holiday with a get out of jail free card ( doctors note) and no regrets.
Friday morning my wife gets up at five to go to work. I have to get up anyways to take the anti biotics. I have half a glass of water.
And throw it up.
I wait a bit. She has to go , and if I'm going to be off work I don't want her off too, someone's gotta pay rent, I almost literally boot her out. I'm already shy a couple of days pay lets not make this any worse.
Time rolls around again for my meds. Try taking just one pill , some water. Wait.
Twenty minutes later, I up chuck it into a bucket. A HUNDRED AND TWENTY THREE DOLLARS that I paid out of my pocket is now winding up in the dang bucket instead of my belly where it can do me some good. Now I'm pissed off.
And it's friday again. Everything in the hospital is closed. No x-rays. No ultra sounds. Just a four hour wait to see a doctor to be told "yup. You're a sick puppy. Pity everything is closed. We WILL call you tommorow. "
Now I'm really pissed off.