Modus Operandi Podcast episode 55

episode 55 4/1/2011

episode in three parts:  p1 p2 p3

Ogrefest Theme

One of the funniest shows ever.

Modus Operandi Podcast episode 40

episode 40 11/18/2010

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96:47
Show notes:

We crank along for about 41 minutes bouncing smoothly from subject to subject, most of which is on the blog, but some new personal stories and philosophical musings until we start talking about the TSA.  I have new information as to who is blowing whom when it comes to these full body scanners and it makes it all the more obvious that Obama is just a continuation of the Bush/Cheney clusterfuck: 
Former Department of Homeland Security Head (and utter goddamned failure) Michael Chertoff is the lead lobbyist for the company that makes the machines that are suddenly required everywhere.  AND  Former chief security officer of the Israel Airport Authority Rafi Sela says, "I don't know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747."

And as long as we're on TSA stupidity:


Jim Morrison indecent exposure pardon? 

We end with sports and I think Dave calls college sports Aryan Idealism or something that might cause us to apologize to the Anti-Defamation League or somebody.  Jeez, dude.

Special Ogre-fest theme way at the very end for you dedicated listeners.

A Mess of October Ogre-oids To Upset Your Stomach

Ogre-fuck Number 1:

The perfect hypothetical example of why libertarianism is a giant vat of stupid has always been the fire department.  You would think we would've learned back in the 19th century that private fire companies that only served paying customers was a bad idea, but apparently one asshole Republican mayor in Obion County Tennessee decided it was a good idea.  One man who didn't pay the $75 fee for fire coverage watched his home burn to the ground as the fire department put out the fire in his neighbor's field.  Both the fire chief and the mayor should be taken out and hung from the nearest tree until they are dead.  Anyone that would watch their neighbor's home burn to the ground is a worthless son of a bitch and society would be better off without them.

Ogre-fuck Number 2:  
Containment pond ruptures in Hungary.


Ogre-oids:
-[Jim] DeMint [R-SC] said if someone is openly homosexual, they shouldn't be teaching in the classroom and he holds the same position on an unmarried woman who's sleeping with her boyfriend — she shouldn't be in the classroom.

-News Corp. gives $1 million to the Chamber of Commerce (basically a GOP entity).

Fox is having it both ways right now as a news organization and political campaign. With $2 million direct from their corporate treasury invested in the defeat of Democratic candidates, it is an insult to actual journalists that the network is treated as anything other than a research, fundraising, and communications arm of the Republican Party. They don't belong in the front row of the White House briefing room, they belong at RNC headquarters. -Media Matters VP Ari Rabin-Havt

-Northern Hemisphere winter 2010 2nd hottest in 130 years, summer 4th hottest in 131 years. Yes, Virginia, the earth is getting warmer.

Modus Operandi Podcast episode 34

episode 34 9/30/2010

Links for episode 34:

Mutilated bodies again.
Fisher Price has massive recall for reasons including potential genital bleeding.
War an abstraction for most.
Austin "Jack" DeCoster:  The Salmonella King.
 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Postcards From the Pledge
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Attacks increase in "Green Zone."

Alan on the Spot last week:
  Kentucky at Florida:  44-13 48-14
  Alabama at Arkansas:  17-16  24-20
  Murray High v Trigg Co.:  36-9 29-3
  Calloway Co. High School v whoever:  The pain continues.  CCHS lost
  Saints win lost
This week:
  Kentucky v Ole Miss:  16-45 
  Murray v Reidland:  21-27 
  Calloway Co High School v whoever:  Lakers win by less than three points.
  Arizona Cardinals v whoever:  lose by less than 7
  Will UK students be camped out for UK tickets:  yes
  Saints:  win

Weekly Link Dump

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jon Stewart & Anderson Cooper Look at Gaping Holes - Security<a>
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

NYC Mosque ("Ground Zero")
Proposition 8 on hold in California.
Charlie Rangel
Maxine Waters
Flooding in Pakistan
Afghanistan more civilian deaths





Semi-anti-ogre-oid:  Dr. Laura To Quit Radio Show
Anti-ogre-oid:  The Bat Shit Crazy Orly Taitz was told by the Supreme Court to Pay Up

Ogre-links

National Marine Fisheries Service failed in BP oversight.
BP and sea turtles
BP is now THE LAW

Glenn Beck opens his own "university."

Healthcare.gov recommends poor people "look for free clinics."  What's changed, exactly?

1970's:  CEO's make $45 for every $1 paid employees.  Now it's $1081 for every dollar.  Now who, exactly, is to blame for unemployment?

The Week in Ogre-oids

Afghanistan - June was the deadliest month yet for coalition troops in our endless, stupid war in Afghanistan.  I can find no mention of how many civilians were killed but I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest it was a fucking lot of people.

The deaths of 102 servicemembers included a record 59 Americans. Nine of the 46 nations in the U.S.-led coalition suffered fatalities, the most countries to lose troops since the conflict began nearly nine years ago.  via

GOP Blocks Extension of Unemployment Benefits - After more than a decade of spending like drunken sailors with a pocket full of stolen credit cards, GOP Congress members have blocked an extension of unemployment benefits because it would add to the deficit.  War is fine with them, tax cuts for the ultra-megas are fine with them, but helping people out whose jobs have been lost thanks to the Republicans' reckless behavior?  Not a chance.  I think I'm going to print myself a bumper sticker that says, "Fuck the Poor! vote GOP."  more


Proof Our Newspapers Are Too Chickenshit to Call Torture Torture - Worst offender?  The NY Times which virtually stopped referring to waterboarding by Americans as torture after Bush/Cheney decided it was hunky dory while still calling it torture if other countries do it according to a new study by Harvard’s Kennedy School (pdf).

Examining the four newspapers with the highest daily circulation in the country, we found a significant and sudden shift in how newspapers characterized waterboarding. From the early 1930s until the modern story broke in 2004, the newspapers that covered waterboarding almost uniformly called the practice torture or implied it was torture: The New York Times characterized it thus in 81.5% (44 of 54) of articles on the subject and The Los Angeles Times did so in 96.3% of articles (26 of 27). By contrast, from 2002‐2008, the studied newspapers almost never referred to waterboarding as torture. The New York Times called waterboarding torture or implied it was torture in just 2 of 143 articles (1.4%). The Los Angeles Times did so in 4.8% of articles (3 of 63). The Wall Street Journal characterized the practice as torture in just 1 of 63 articles (1.6%). USA Today never called waterboarding torture or implied it was torture. In addition, the newspapers are much more likely to call waterboarding torture if a country other than the United States is the perpetrator. In The New York Times, 85.8% of articles (28 of 33) that dealt with a country other than the United States using waterboarding called it torture or implied it was torture while only 7.69% (16 of 208) did so when the United States was responsible. The Los Angeles Times characterized the practice as torture in 91.3% of articles (21 of 23) when another country was the violator, but in only 11.4% of articles (9 of 79) when the United States was the perpetrator. via

NPR's Continued Practice of Allowing It's Correspondents to Also Work For Fox News - Fox News is not a news organization.  They follow no rules of journalistic ethics.  They are a propaganda service for the far right of American politics and anyone in their employ is damaged goods.  NPR and Fox's Mara Liasson manages to insert some Fox bullshit into every article aired on NPR and she once again managed it by noting, for absolutely no reason other than to sound the fascist dog whistle, that President Obama was "reading from a teleprompter" during a speech in Louisiana.  It's utterly disgusting that any organization that claims to report facts would allow these hacks to sully its broadcasts.

Here's an exchange I had with the ombudsman's office.

Ogre-oid: Obama Has Prosecuted More News Reporters Than Any Other President

Continuing Ogre-oid: Chinese Children Hacked to Death

Insanity rules.  The series of attacks on school children in their schools seems to be a violent expression of economic and social injustice in China.  This particular incident appears to stem from a property dispute, probably the State took possession of the killer's farm land to build the school.  I can't understand this drive to kill children no matter how often it is explained to me.  Does overpopulation play a role in these attacks?  When population density collides with upward mobility is this the reaction of the human hive to cull its numbers?  If so they're going to have to get with the poison gases and epidemics if they want actual change.

7 Chinese children, 2 adults hacked to death at China kindergarten; attacker commits suicide

Updated 08:35 PM May 12, 2010

BEIJING (AP) - An attacker with a cleaver has hacked to death seven children and two adults at a kindergarten in northwest China, the latest in a string of savage assaults on the country's schools. Eleven other children were wounded.

The killer, 48-year-old Wu Huanming, returned home after Wednesday's attack on the outskirts of the city of Hanzhong and committed suicide, the local government reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency, citing an initial police investigation, said Wu had feuded over the kindergarten property with its manager, Wu Hongying, who was among the victims.

It was the fifth such major assault on young students in China since late March and occurred despite increased security at schools countrywide.

- AP

Ogre-oid: The Ever Evolving Police State of America

Sharon Ramage, a 57-year-old grandmother with no criminal record, was ironing clothes when the police assault on her home began shortly after nightfall on June 21, 2007.

Backed by a helicopter and a $300,000 armored vehicle, 35 members of the Louisville Metro SWAT team stormed her Okolona property, detonated a deafening “flash bang” device, smashed in her rear door, put her on the floor, bound her wrists with flex cuffs and held her at gunpoint while detectives searched the home.


Police were looking for evidence against her 32-year-old son, Michael Ramage, who was under investigation after dropping off film at a Wal-Mart store showing him and his two sons naked. But the search uncovered no evidence, and charges against Ramage for using a minor in a sexual performance eventually were dismissed.
more

Buried Lead:  The search was for evidence in a sex crime (and in the end the pictures that started this botched investigation were completely innocent, thanks "employee at a color-film processing company in Atlanta" snitch).  Think about that for a minute.  What could have been done by a couple of detectives with a warrant acting politely was done at huge cost (a helicopter costs around $5000/hr to keep in the air), massive damage, and by terrorizing an innocent woman.  Why?  Because they can.  Because we empower these thugs to act like this. 

Why do cops pull people over at random (or after being profiled like my brother and I who were pulled over and searched on separate occasions because we were white in the black part of town) and search them despite the fact the Supreme Court and all lower courts have said they can't?  It's because they know that only one in a thousand people can afford to sue the police for doing it.  So they keep doing it.  They didn't arrest me so unless I have a recording of the situation all I can do is accept that I was stopped, questioned, and searched without cause.  And if I did have a recording?  I might win a small settlement against the police department and the two cops would keep on doing it.  Why do cops get to shoot fleeing suspects in the back and get away with no punishment other than a few months off with pay?  Because we allow them to police themselves and, as always, the shooting turns out to be "justified."  Shoot a black man in New York 50 times, get off free, if you're a cop.  Who is watching the watchers?  Noone.  It takes an individual bringing suit at great cost in both time and money with no guarantee the legal system will work.  Most of us can't afford to take a couple of years off from our life to pursue these bastards and in the end it is very rare for a cop to lose his or her job for being a thug, murderer, or worse.  Nope, we just let them keep fucking with us because we're supposed to respect them, even when they're total assholes and idiots.

Louisville Metro Police Department's armored vehicles used to be parked in plain view but have since been moved (I feel like a fool for not photographing them at the time, they were quite scary).  Not only do they have humvees and armored transport trucks, there is at least one Bradley in the mix.  These are military assault vehicles, painted matte black and missing the mounted automatic weapons (for now).  A few years ago when the police occupied Broadway Avenue here in Louisville to keep the blacks from partying during Derby they were dressed in fatigues with combat boots and carried shotguns and rifles at the intersections.  We are slowly but surely turning our police forces into paramilitary forces.  That is a really bad idea and it is how the powerful are circumventing the law preventing deployment of armed soldiers in the U.S. (though they began to chip away at the basis of that law in post Katrina New Orleans).

Welcome to America, land of "shoot first, ask questions later."

Dave-oids

Because he is too lame to even try to post to the blog, Dave has sent me a couple of ogre-oids via e-mail, proving once again that copy & paste is a difficult concept for some people and trial and error are terrifying for others.

Ogre-oid: Air guns.  today's C-J front page reports that an 11 yr old was fatally wounded when his sibling shot a BB gun at him not knowing the gun was loaded.  at least he wasn't smoking pot.

Ogre-oid: The internet.  internet fraud doubled in 2009 from 2008.  how's that for improved communication.

To the first I would note that the mafia murders in Mexico are being blamed on pot rather than drug prohibition in general.  I heard someone today point out that noone ever called Al Capone's crimes "alcohol crimes" but the same organized crime scenario today becomes "drug crime."

To the second, of course internet fraud doubled.  The number of internet users doubled, and monitoring and enforcement have increased.  Fraud is human nature.  Being smart enough to not be defrauded is not, see the election of George W. Bush.

M.O. pod Episode 8 at Vimeo

Modus Operandi Podcast episode 8 3/4/2010 from alan evil on Vimeo.

Ogre-oid: Iowa Woman Arrested for Thinking About Abortion

from Nerve 

 If you thought anti-abortion idiots were idiots before, this story will only make you furious. If you thought pro-choicers were a bunch of baby-killin’ creeps before… well, you’ll probably feel a bit uncomfortable about your position after this…

A pregnant woman arrived at an Iowa hospital claiming to have fainted and fallen down the stairs. She was relieved to hear that her baby was fine and mentioned to the nurse that she was glad she wanted to have the baby, even though she’d thought of having an abortion or giving it up for adoption due to the fact that she’s getting divorced and is jobless. The nurse called in a doctor, who got the same comments out of her.
You can probably guess what happened next:

Next thing Taylor knew, she was being arrested for attempted feticide. Apparently the nurse and doctor thought that Taylor threw herself down the stairs on purpose.
According to Iowa state law, attempted feticide is an trying “to intentionally terminate a human pregnancy, with the knowledge and voluntary consent of the pregnant person, after the end of the second trimester of the pregnancy.” At least 37 states have similar laws. Taylor spent two days in jail before being released. That’s right, a pregnant woman was jailed for admitting to thinking about an abortion at some point early in her pregnancy and then having the audacity to fall down some stairs a couple of months later. [Women's Rights]

Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that: these people jumped the gun a bit in assuming that thoughts from months ago that she dismissed are the reason she fell down the stairs. It’s a bit like evacuating an airport because a guy admitted that he had some flammable liquid in his truck last week.
The good news is Ms. Taylor will not be prosecuted — but only because she isn’t as far along as initially thought. As the original article points out, Iowa thinks abortion can become a bigger deal depending on the size of the fetus.

from Nerve

Ogrefest for 2/4/2010

For those of you new to MOPod, the world, especially the United States is an ogrefest.  We are surrounded by ogres acting in a particularly ogre-ish manner.  These actions we call "ogre-oids" and they accumulate into the never ending Ogrefest.  Last weeks ogre-oids are:

5.  Rush Limbaugh is not dead.  If one thing is wrong with this world, it's this man's continued breathing.

4.  The media's mindless blithering about the end of the manned moon program.  Though Dave and Alan's views on the subject are different they both agree our "news" organizations have managed yet again to fail to portray this subject with any kind of depth or honesty.

3.  U.S. military deaths in Pakistan.  Surprise!  Our military has been lying to us and the world!  Who woulda thunk it?

2.  Abstinence only education study touted in headlines to prove that it actually works.  If by "works" they mean it delayed kids from having sex by a few months and left them completely uneducated about how not to get pregnant or contract STD's then, yeah, it "works."  Read this article and its links.

1.  Toyota's belated and poorly handled recall of most of their car models because of sticking accelerators and the newly revealed issue with the Prius's braking system.