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Voter fraud?

more to come on this in the future

“we’ve all used ATMs, and most everyone has something such as an iPod. now, have you ever, anytime, anywhere, had one of these electronic devices switch data input on you?” asks selwyn duke of american thinking in a recent article. “so how is it that in our high-tech universe of flawlessly functioning electronic gadgets, voting machines are the only ones prone to human-like ‘error’? if there’s an explanation other than human meddling, again, i’d truly like to hear it.”

wow. and i thought voter fraud was exclusive to countries like russia, pakistan and iran, i guess not anymore! here’s what the guy who posted this video wrote:

“i initially selected obama but romney was highlighted. i assumed it was being picky so i deselected romney and tried obama again, this time more carefully, and still got romney. being a software developer, i immediately went into troubleshoot mode. i first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting jill stein to actually highlight obama. nope. jill stein was selected just fine. next i deselected her and started at the top of romney’s name and started tapping very closely together to find the ‘active areas’. from the top of romney’s button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside obama’s name was all active for romney. from the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose obama. stein’s button was fine. all other buttons worked fine.

i asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. i then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. she him hawed for a bit then calmly said “it’s nothing to worry about, everything will be ok.” and went back to what she was doing. i then recorded this video.

there is a lot of speculation that the footage is edited. i’m not a video guy, but if it’s possible to prove whether a video has been altered or not, i will GLADLY provide the raw footage to anyone who is willing to do so. the jumping frames are a result of the shitty camera app on my android phone, nothing more.” original post. by ts

CATEGORIES: history, read

ghouls, goblins and ghosts

i don’t care much for, or adhere to tradition in any form…but today is halloween after all, so here is a tiny informative guide to decipher the attributes and differences between ghosts, goblins and ghouls.

GHOSTS, in case you didn’t already know, are considered to be the souls of the dead, often appearing in a seemingly imperceptible fashion.  you know, those white sheets and all.  any red blood cell lacking hemoglobin is also referred to as a ghost, further enforcing the idea of pigmentation lacking.

GOBLINS are typically nightmarish who at times have the ability to adopt human forms and assault or “trick” people into thinking they are otherwise.  the word goblin is derived from the german word kobold, which is a mischievous and naughty household spirit.   the spirit can either be helpful and amuse children, or hide food around the house and throw temper tantrums when he is not attended to.  sounds like every pet/significant other i’ve ever had.  hmm.

lastly, GHOULS are the most dastardly of them all.  the world ghoul stems from the arabic ghul which comes from ghala meaning, “he seized”.  ghouls have been known to eat both stolen corpses and children.  YUM!  by sv

CATEGORIES: musings, read

Monogamy is for Narcissists

“love has little to do with sex, and sex has nothing to do with love”

i think the discussion today warrants such a post. “monogamy is for narcissists”. these were the wise words of james brown… not the god-father of soul, lord bless his sex machine, but actually a good friend of mine who aint’ funky nor black. i didn’t need to research to conclude my philosophy on this which is basically that the taboo of sex is not only as absurd as god itself, like god its purely man-made. it serves to mask what we call “jealousy” and insecurity, both of which are unfortunate bodily-functions, that should at best be kept in the privacy of a bathroom. “the taboo of sex”s most useful function to date has been to sell us everything from lipstick, to clothes, to cars, to bras, to drinks, botox and cigarettes. almost every product has been marketed at one point or another with the promise of what should otherwise be prevalent, like the air we breath. but for all you obedient folks that will not dare question this, here’s a bit of research:

excerpts – “… today couples are led to believe that waning sexual passion, in enduring marriages, or sexual interest in anyone but their partner, portend a failed relationship, when in reality these things often signify nothing more than that we are simply humans or homo sapiens. our ancestors evolved in small-scale, highly egalitarian foraging groups that shared almost everything. anthropologists have demonstrated time and again that immediate-return hunter-gatherer societies are nearly universal in their so-called “fierce egalitarianism.” sharing is not just encouraged; it’s mandatory. most foragers divide and distribute food equitably, breast-feed one another’s babies, have little or no privacy from one another, and depend upon each other every day for survival. monogamy is simply un-natural to our being, and while we can choose what we wish, just as we can choose to be vegans, we can decide to lead sexually monogamous lives. but couples would be wise to remember that just because you’ve chosen to be vegan, it’s utterly natural to yearn for an occasional bacon cheeseburger.” – christopher ryan  by xy

CATEGORIES: musings, read

and the award goes to…(almost) an entire continent!

the nobel peace prize.  it seems odd to me that a ‘prize’ is necessary at all, in other words, isn’t the mere notion of giving and encouraging peace rewarding enough?  well, i suppose that’s besides the point, and SOMEtimes humans can be outstanding, but those individuals are few and far between. (gandhi never got one did he?  and obama did, albeit prematurely…)  anyway, this years’ nobel peace prize has been awarded to the european union, “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”.  although, the last time i checked, the union has only been the union since mitterand and kohl established it as so in 1993.  doesn’t quite add up to sixty years, but we get the point, we are talking about the origins in the ECSC and the EEC which is completely legitimate i suppose.  i am truly trying to play devil’s advocate here; if you think about it, the EU has come light years from where they were decades ago.  tumultuous wars, disintegrating world powers, ego fights of the most treacherous and monumental kind…and here we are.  sure, there are still some serious economic difficulties and peril, but as much as it pains me to say, those things are often inevitable, especially in a world like ours.  citizens in athens are up in arms about this award, where germans are happy and feel as if their work and struggle has paid off in a way.  but now the $1.2 million dollar question—where is the check going to go, and who is it going to be awarded to come this december in oslo?  this is when we will truly see the demonstrative nature of peace. by sv

CATEGORIES: earth related, read

everything is fucked, everything is ok

a quarterly zine about modern life written by contributors from nyc, london and sydney. if you often find yourself going back and forth between the words BEST THING EVER and WORST THING EVER give this thing a read, its only 5 bucks and you can get it here.  by ak

CATEGORIES: read

Albert Einstein’s letter on God goes on auction this monday Oct 8th: starting bid $3,000,000


“No one even knew this letter existed till recently…” eric gazin, president of auction cause

if only i had three million to spare, this would be worth every penny just to point to each day when faced with those god-fearing, subtly-kind folks. the letter was written by albert einstein (who, if i may say, was to some extent intelligent and above average). the letter was written in german in 1954, decades before atheist scientist and author richard dawkins called god a “delusion”, and sent to jewish philosopher eric gutkind, one year before einstein died. the letter was in reaction to gutkind’s book, “choose life: the biblical call to revolt.” in the letter albert einstein wrote :

“the word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. no interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this… for me the jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. and the jewish people to whom i gladly belong and with whose mentality i have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. as far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. otherwise i cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.” –albert einstein

*the translation above is an abridgment of the letter from albert einstein to eric gutkind from princeton NJ in january 1954, translated from german by joan stambaugh.

now i personally tend to seek answers for myself, but if one day i was about to take the word of another mortal man, i think i’d trust albert einstein over any other preacher on earth. that said, happy readings on the godly tales, any edition that is, as they do make good bed time stories. bid or read more on the letter here. by dd

CATEGORIES: read

hunter or haunted?

mister hunter s. thompson in his later, leisurely days. it’s hard to think of him as a young man in the US airforce where he was discharged, in june 1958, having been recommended for an early honorable discharge by his commanding officer. “in summary, this airman, although talented, will not be guided by policy”, col. william s. evans, chief of information services wrote. “sometimes his rebel and superior attitude seems to rub off on other airmen staff members.” in a mock press release thompson had written about the end of his duty, he claimed to have been issued a status of, “totally unclassifiable” which i think could be considered quite appropriate, no mockery intended. by dd

CATEGORIES: read

julian assange pissed off: rotten swedish meatballs for sale

“what does the u.s. have to do with a swedish extradition process?” assange asked. “why is it that me, a non-profit free speech activist, is subject to a $360,000 bail? why is it that i am kept under electronic house arrest when i have not even been charged in any country, when i have never been a fugitive?” well the answer mr. assange, is that you revealed the truth.  and not “all” of the truth is generally required.

if you don’t know much about this start reading yourself, but here’s a TV guide version of this tragedy. wikileaks founder julian assange finally lost his uk supreme court fight against extradition to sweden to face accusations of sex offenses (apparently having consensual sex in sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment for a minimum of two years for rape). some of the claims were filed by anna ardin, an accuser with alleged CIA ties. ardin had worked with “las damas de blanco” a feminist anti-castro group in cuba backed by the CIA. apparently ardin had slept with assange on more than one occassion and after the last one had thrown a party in assange’s honour at her flat after the alleged ‘crime’ and tweeted to her followers that she is with, “the world’s coolest smartest people.” somehow, she turned on him afterwards. ardin also happens to be the author of a 7-step guide on legal revenge of cheating boyfriends. the plot thickens. whatever it was, the CIA or the jealousy we could actually understand both. what we can’t understand is sweden? the assange case was originally thrown out of the court by one judge for lack of evidence, months later another “lay judge” (lay judges are appointed in sweden because of their political affiliations to adjudicate in criminal proceedings and have no formal legal training), this lay judge suddenly reopened the case and issued a warrant for assange (all of this as clinton and the rest of world powers were condemning wikileaks). now what has resulted in england is also expected, but of all places sweden? we saw the nords as the pillars of true democracy without the for-sale sign. it appears sweden is no longer any different than the rest. they best take good care of him, we will need people like that. by jm (george orwell’s niece)

CATEGORIES: read