Department of Inconvenient Truths
Indicium Parilis Facultas ne Necessarius Veritas

K-5 Blazer in Action: Today, while “hunting” (also known as serious 4-wheeling), we went into an area with a “bury you” mud hole… the evil k-5 was in the front, me in my bronco right behind him…. he went into the hole, and I do mean INTO the hole, it swallowed him… pushing mud with front bumper… had to back out.. after spinning his tires for like 30 seconds, he finally made it out… had a route around it, sorta, to put left tires up on the left side, right side still in mud.. he damn near didn’t make it through….. not so for my Bronco…..

Not only did I make it through the “Blazer Swallowing Mud Pit”…. I pulled into the MIDDLE and STOPPED… let the mud soak around the tires… stomped it to the floor and threw mud 20 ft. in the air….

On the return trip…. Mr. Blazer yet again took the high road, now on the right and made it through with his left side damn near buried in the hole… this time, I put the Bronco in the middle, stopped… idled out of it :-)

So, in the next mud hole… my good buddy, being the great friend that he is, thought he would pull a fast one and sling mud all over my windshield… oh no, I seen him backing up into the mud hole he just went through… seen him sliding the transfer case into 2WD… I backed up and waited for him to finish… waving at him through my nearly clean (clean other than what I had already put on there) windshield…. on the way out of the mud hole in 2wd, he slung himself into a tree… the passenger got out and looked at the front end, I thought he hit the tree, turns out, he didn’t…. he busted a tire!

Not only did he take a beating in the mud from my bronco… he busted a tire and me, being the great friend that I am, loaned him tools and helped him change tires :-) isn’t it a wonderful day?

I’ll give the guy some credit: 1) he’s a better driver than me and 2) he had All Terrain Tires, rather than my mudders… but no matter how you stack it…. it’s a great day when a Full Size Bronco beats up a Full Size K5 Blazer…. life is good. :-)

Don’t believe me? You’re probably in the 75%. It’s amazing to me how “educated” people survive. Most people learn a trade or a profession and maybe a single hobby, past that, they’re out of their realm and haven’t a clue. Being clueless is a way of life, especially in America, where if you’re middle class or above, everything is basically handed to you. I am only 33 years old at the time of this blog entry. I can’t say that I walked two miles, up hill, in the snow, to school and then back home, up hill, 3 miles in a blizzard…. but I can say… I had to “fix it” myself when I was growing up because we didn’t always have the money to afford little extra things…. like someone fixing the starter on my car, like hiring a carpenter to fix a window on the house, like hiring a plumber to fix a busted pipe. I learned everything, basically on my own, because I HAD TO. Guess what? I am better off from it.

The reason that people “can’t do” probably goes back to not trying. If you don’t rip things apart, sometimes breaking them, sometimes leaving parts out when you put them back together, you’ll not learn how to work on things. This doesn’t just apply to physically working on something with your hands. It’s the same with mental exercises also. It’s like the old saying, “..if you don’t use it, you lose it.” Whether you’re using your mind or your hands, if you don’t try, you’ll fail, if you don’t practice, you’ll fail also. “Practice makes perfect.” If you’re not willing to fuck something up, chances are, you’ll not learn a damn thing.

I was formally trained as an Electronics Technician. I went through Electronics School and many other “schools”. Frankly, I was trained in one of the best ElTech schools in the country…. however, I wasn’t prepared enough to go out into the field and immediately start fixing this or that. That’s not how it works. Ok. Most of us know this…. Why I am I going on about it? It’s simple: The look on the faces of “interns” or new-hires at professional organizations, when they first come out of college or trade school with all the piss and vinegar still running through their veins. See, it’s a wake up call when you arrive at your new job only to learn that just about everything taught in the core elements of your chosen profession are thrown out the window and new material is jambed into your head. If you’re not willing to adapt, move out of the way because someone like me will run up your back, poke you in the eyeball and make you cry your way back to mommy. That “look”, the day they finally “get it”, when you’re looking at them and it dawns on them that they’re relatively stupid…. heh. I love it. “The Look” is priceless.

Every day, I deal with support issues on computer systems, networks, servers, from the basic end-user to admins alike, in several different job roles. As stated elsewhere in this blog, I work several different jobs during the day…. not all of ’em are *real* jobs, however, they’re all “full time”. I do computer consulting work for small businesses, basically I am a contracted IT person for small, mom & pop businesses, doctors offices, lawyers, etc. I also help out a friend that owns an Outfitter company where he runs a campground, ATV rentals and guide services for outdoor activities. I am a volunteer fire fighter, which I run as many calls as I possibly can… usually, I run the most out of all the members at our station… we run around 350 per year or so, I usually average 50% or higher per yer… And the guy that owns the outfitter company also is into a lot of other things, like he owns a body shop and does hauling for folks… so I go with him…. all over the place really… Then there’s my night-job, as I call it… working online for yet another company… and I also do web development, domain hosting… “on the side”. So, as you can see, I keep myself very busy. Yes, I am into a lot… no, I do not have a family. Just me, the girlfriend, two dogs and two cats. We’re a happy lot :-) The point is… I get to see examples of some very stupid fucking people. Every day, I deal with some of the dumbest “smart” people you’ve ever met. I have a couple clients, Magna Cum Laude from law schools and from medical schools. It’s a wonder they can wipe their own asses. Ah hell, I am not complaining that they need help with _everything_, I am just theorizing how much money these people could save if they’d get their heads out of their asses long enough to just think about things for just a minute, take the time to learn how to do something on their own and quit paying people like me big bucks to do the most minute tasks for ’em. It’s really pitiful.

My rant boils over concerning computers. It’s amazing to me how the marketing power of Sears (selling those god-awful Packard Bells way-back-when), Microsoft, Gateway, Dell, HP, Staples, OfficeMax, Circuit City, Walmart, among others, have set the impression into the average American Citizen’s mind that _anyone_ can operate a home computer. Listen folks, XP is easy… fine.. it’s easy to turn on, log into, and point and click at the pretty little colored things…. however…. using a fucking recovery CD isn’t tech support…. and that’s what damn near _all_ computer manufacturers are resorting to. Why? Because the average computer user is too goddamn stupid to do anything else. Now, you’ve used the recovery cd and reverted back to the original installation… you’ve lost everything on the computer. You’ve wiped out all updates you’ve done (if you’ve done _any_ that is). You’re on dialup and you need to update your system…. What’s the current count for XP updates? Something like 130 meg or so? All the while, your vanilla install of XP is running Windows Messaging (spam popups anyone?) and completely vulnerable to what? Something like 30 or so root exploits? How the hell is Mr. Joe Average-Dumb-Ass suppose to keep up with this? Jesus. If you simply ask a person to “double click My Computer” you’ll get a “what’s that?”. People are fucking computer stupid.

Guess what moron, you’re wrong. I thought I leaned heavily to the conservative side… I’ve never thought myself to be a right-wing extremist, but I thought I leaned right.. guess what? I don’t.

Take a look at this image then come back in here and visit this link. Take the test yourself. Be as forthright and honest as I was. I gave my answers truthfully and honestly. You do the same and see where you lean.

Oh yea, don’t be an idiot and mis-read everything on the test. Make sure you read it thoroughly. If you’re too stupid to understand something, look it up: www.dictionary.com. The test is really easy, but you never can tell, you may be a moron.

So I help a lot of people. Yea, as hard to believe as it is, it’s true. I help people all the time, for free. That’s right, free. I’m not trying to get saint-hood here and I’m not blowing my own horn, even though it seems that way. I am telling you all this because you need a little background for this blog entry.

I am a highly dedicated volunteer firefighter, 18 years worth. I still receive the “Most Calls” award from my department for responding to the most calls per year… In fact, I’ve received it the last two years in a row and 4 out of the last 8 years I’ve been in the department. I’ve been named “Firefighter of the Year” 3 times in the course of the last 8 years. This coupled with working two full-time jobs (those that know me, know I stay busy), plus I help friends run an “Outfitter” company.. for free. I answer thousands of computer-help-related emails per year, for free. I sit in a chatroom, one that I created as a spin-off to a computer-help-related website I’ve built over the years, and answer computer-help-related questions in real-time, for free, every day.

Every now and then, I’ll get involved with someone that irritates me. Ok. We all do that. Most of us will overlook the irritation and work with the person or help them out. Big deal. I do that all the time.

Folks, I found someone that absolutely baffles me, we’ll call him “Numbnuts” for the purpose of this discussion. I’ve answered literally hundreds of emails from Numbnuts over the course of the last few months. Some of the emails are genuine questions that only myself or someone “in the know” can answer, they’re not general computer related issues, they’re specialty items only a select few know the answers to. Over time, these emails have progressed from the object-oriented to the obscure. I expressed my intent to help Numbnuts because he’s in China, behind the great firewall thereof. He’s a foreign national, living in a hostile environment, expressing himself in religious ways not appreciated by the communist/socialist/maoist regime in power (to which he once replied to me by saying: “…communists are good for christianity, the more they oppress, the easier it is to get converts.”) — now there’s something fucked up with that statement, but that’s a different subject that I’m not covering here.

I’ve freely given him advice on firewalls, routers, connectivity issues, PGP, proxies, hardware and MS based software issues, among other things. I’ve advised him on personal privacy and turned him onto many, many items of interests as it pertains to persecution by the Chinese government that he was (how the hell this happened I dunno) previously unaware of.

He’s even used me (chat/email) during visits to other peoples residences while he worked on their computers, then billed them for it…. ! (an exclamation point is all I have to say about that).

Numbnuts became interested in linux. Being a linux admin, I of course did the honorable thing and offered to pass on what was taught to me. I offered to assist him in learning linux and the ins/outs of linux desktops. My personal favorite linux flavor is RedHat, it’s easy for the newbie to learn, so I helped him get started and taught him about ISO’s, where to download it from, get the documentation online, etc. I taught him how to install it, how to get started and some basic functions. I helped him with his first googling of info… God did I help him with google. Numbnuts is the kind of person that wants you to hand him everything on a silver platter. I’ve had to go to the point of completely brushing him off during very busy times of the day because he doesn’t understand the FACT that I am busy and I cannot dedicate my entire day to his little problems. He continually went into IRC to speak with me, even though I told him to EMAIL me specific problems and I would get to ’em when I could. I’m not talking one or two times, I told him this no less than 10 times…. finally I had to send him an email and speak to him like he’s a little kid (he’s like 37 or so) and tell him in as simple terms as I possibly could, again, that the best way to get in touch with me is email. Something finally clicked in the moron’s brain. He stated “..I finally get it, email you.” Or something to that affect.

So, tonight, I was helping him take out some stuff in /etc/rc.d/init.d/. He fucked that up. Didn’t get things back in there that he should have. I gave him explicit step-by-step instructions, 1, 2, 3, do this, do this, it will look like this, copy here, paste here.. blah blah blah. Nope. He couldn’t do it. Reported back to me and in the interim, like some kind of dumbass, he rebooted the system, without me telling him to. Because this idiot wouldn’t take my advice and put linux on one of the other 10 machines he seems to have charge over, he setup a dual boot on his primary workstation… would he contact me from another machine while we worked on this one? No. He rebooted the box, virtually breaking it apart. Ok. Sure, I could get it to come back up, if I had access to it or he had enough experience to at least explain the situation to me or what is on the screen at a given time. He emailed me with: “….I rebooted the box, now it won’t go passed…. won’t boot.. nothing works….” blah. blah. blah. Well, we all know what happened, he borked his startup. It’s not un-fixable by no means.. but if you haven’t ever tried to recover a linux startup via email or chat while speaking to a moron.. let me tell you, you might as well grab a yank of hair out of your head, cause it’s gonna happen before the conversation is over.

Anyway, I told him, since he didn’t have anything important on the machine yet, frankly I think he’d fucked up more than he’d fixed, I told him to reboot the box with the Redhat 1 disk in and reinstall. He replies back in a form of language I’ve never seen before. I reply and ask him to speak “english only”, he replies with a smart-ass comment…. Then I reply back to him that I wouldn’t be helping him anymore…. he replies back a list of smart-ass comments… I finally send him an email explaining that I didn’t want to speak to him again, reported him to his ISP, of which, I am very familiar with the ToS ;) So all of a sudden, after months of helping this asshole, he turns asshole because…. because… only thing I can think of.. because he’s too goddamn stupid to understand anything we’ve done….

Needless to say, I am extremely pissed off right now.. and it’s two hours since last contact. It’s people like this that take advantage of people like me and decrease the number of people like me in the world. You want to know why there’s so many assholes in the world? Guess what, the above is one more link in the chain. We “do gooders” can only take so much life being sucked out of us before the steam comes to a head and we pop.

This is un-fucking-believable. The MPA now says it’s illegal to post song lyrics on websites. Ok, first off, I don’t go to these sites and read the lyrics but the people that do, should have that right. Why? It’s simple, these words are spoken to the public, on the radio, they have a RIGHT to know what’s being said when MOST of the time, you can’t understand a fucking thing that’s being said by the person singing…. Hell, maybe that’s the point, maybe the MPA is trying to protect the artists (!?) by not allowing their drivel to be read and understood… Ha! Ain’t that a thought? Actually reading and seeing the trash that’s being played on the airwaves? Here’s the deal, not unlike thousands of other clear thinking people out there, I won’t purchase another piece of software, another music CD or another DVD, ever. Period. Fuck you MPA, kiss my ass DMCA, and screw you RIAA. Never, ever, will I purchase another piece of “intellectual material”. I will use free, open source software and download FREE mp3’s from new artists, from legitimate websites. I won’t listen to music radio, if I feel the need to listen to something while driving down the road, I’ll listen to talk radio, where I can hear intelligent people speak rather than listen to the dull drone of “music” artists. I quit going to the movies around 3 years ago, wasn’t that about the time Star Wars Episode I came out? Well, that was the last movie I went to see… so that’s no big deal. I won’t even download the mp3’s or vid’s on Kazaa/WinMX just for the sheer fact that doing so, even in it’s miniscule way, supports the artists involved in this entire thing.

You see, I can’t stand to see someone with a mental/physical handicap or an animal mistreated. Yes, I have many harsh words incorporated into my website. These words aren’t pointed at the physically or mentally handicapped, they’re not promoting death to innocents. They’re pointed directly at people with another type of handicap, STUPIDITY. Stupidity comes in many shapes and sizes. You can’t say that a person with a PhD isn’t stupid, I know better. I know some seriously educated morons. My world revolves around logic and reason, as should the rest of the world. Your emotional well-being doesn’t mean a fucking thing to me, suck it up. Your inability to grasp the most miniscule of concepts doesn’t matter to me, I could give a fuck less. If you’re too stupid to get out of the rain, Darwinism, survival of the fittest baby. Basically, if you’re stupid, you’re on “the list”.

You’re either dedicated or not. There’s no weekends and sleep is optional. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most dedicated volunteers work harder than the most dedicated paid employees. I’ve seen it time and time again in the fire service vs. the corporate world. I’ll take the work ethic of my fellow vollie firefighters over the work ethic of wallstreet power brokers anytime.

They write a catchy headline, which I become interested in, then reading a bit, I realize I don’t really know what’s going on. The author continues to write the entire article without thinking “people may not know what this is about, I better give them the basics”, then I lose interest in the article, wasting 5 min’s of my time, becoming a little more dumb in the process.

With Billions of Planets; Millions of Stars; Hundreds of Thousands of Galaxies; How is it possible that individuals can be so self-centered, so egotistical, so conceited to think the planet Earth is the only planet in the Universe that contains intelligent life? It baffles the educated mind.

It’s been said time and time again, I really don’t care, it needs to be driven home like a sharp wooden stick through the pecker of a child molester:

The majority of the media, are fucking nuts. God damn! What a breakthrough! Someone just figured out that the media moguls are full of shit! As astounding as this sounds, I believe someone’s already mentioned this, a couple hundred times.

But what might you ask has given rise to my most recent rant surrounding the media? Folks, I’m not one to beat around the bush. We can argue this in email all you want: The media, full of themselves, are again pouring out sensitive information that *could* cost lives. A little restraint goes along way, especially when reporting about “agents in place”, behind enemy lines.

Sure, we all know there’s agents everywhere. Behind every street corner from Khartoum to Bangkok. The black helicopters are just waiting to storm into the Colonel’s Bunker and take all 101 “super sekret!”, highly classified files containing the video of the death of Jimmy Hoffa. Horses ass.

The problem with “agents” is, you’re not sure they’re there, until CNN reports it. Sure you *think*, but when the Communist News Network proclaims that Mossad has agents in Pakistan, uncovering vast riches of intel concerning the Taliban, do you not think Al-Queda begins watching their asses a little more closely?

I’m sick and tired of reading, from our own press, about our military conducting an operation in the Arabian Peninsula, preparing for a CIA incursion into Iraq. I don’t want to know this, until all of our boys are home safe. Sure, it’s news worthy. Sure, it’s “freedom of the press”, but with “rights” comes “responsibility”. It’s the responsibility of every citizen of these United States to first and foremost, protect the lives of others. By which I mean, yes, the First Amendment to the Constitution grants us “Freedom of the Press”, however, it’s an _Amendment_, meaning it comes AFTER the Constitution.

For those a little rusty on their history, I’ll show you an excerpt from the Constitution of the United States of America:

First, the “Preamble” to the Constitution:

“….We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Folks, this is the very first thing written in the Constitution. The first amendment, granting the Freedom of Speech does not predicate the Preamble. The Preamble specifically states: “….provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

The media, in their infinite wisdom, will pick and choose which part of United States Law they would like to acknowledge at a particular time. Yes, they have the right to say what they want, as long as they understand they’re to be accountable for misrepresentation of “FACT”. Here’s where I get to the good part: Let’s use a little fucking restraint, shall we? Why the hell would our own (WAVE THE AMERICAN FLAG HERE!) media outlets publish information that would jeopardize the lives of our own people? For that matter, why should they publish information that would jeopardize the lives of ANYONE, from any nation?

I’m not talking censorship, I’m not looking for that. What I am looking for is a little common-fucking-sense. If something you’re to publish may jeopardize the lives of others, it’s your responsibility, as a human-fucking-being, to not do it! How god damn simple must it be?

Frankly, it’s as much the “Average American Citizen’s” fault as it is the media. The average Joe on the street is typically completely fucking stupid, let alone being utterly stupid about International Affairs. In every country, most people are dumb as bricks. In America, not only do we need to contend with that, but the American People have no fucking clue about Foreign Affairs. In America, our people look for “Shock Press”. The more shocking the better and we cry foul when the government tries to usurp the efforts of some Commie-Shithead-Reporter that tries to feed the masses by pumping us full of bleeding edge material surrounding the newest intelligence effort. To hell with the death toll! We want our motherfucking news, new, fresh, and right fucking now! To hell with the casualty count! We want the scoop! We know the government is up to something! They’re the government!

You stupid fucking moron, what the hell do you think they’re suppose to do? Fuck you bunch of bleeding heart mother fuckers! I get absolutely fucking ill thinking about you sons of bitches that think we should “mind our own business”. Can’t you fucking see? The whole world, whether you like it or not, look at America for help and support in their own little conflicts. Unbeknownst to eighty percent of the World, we had a hand in the Falkland Islands War, when the British kicked a little ass. Sure, you didn’t see it, we wanted to help the .uk look strong, and they are… in recent times, it hasn’t seemed as such because America was leading the fight for democracy in the free world.

There’s some nasty people in this world. If they’d ever ban together and attempt a global coup, with countries like the United States and Great Britain not only battling the external enemies but also the enemies from within, it will be a very bad day indeed. Try as we might, we cannot fight the World and win. Although a band of enemies is bad, an entire World of enemies, with different objectives but with one common goal; To undermine the powers of the United States, Great Britain and the U.N., is worse.

Yea, you frilly fucking college crowd, with your high ideals and subjective reasoning. Your “left is right, right is wrong” mentality. Your undying love for nature, your beliefs in the “flower power” and “peace until death”. Listen you little fucking near-pubescent-snipe, I live in the real fucking world, where the “underdogs” are trying to kill people. Where the Edi Amin’s of the world gang rape 100,000 of their fellow countrymen. Where the former leftenants of the world go AWOL, take over a small country, crown themselves “Prince”, wear the uniform of marching band field commander and reign havoc over their subjects as if they’re satan incarnate.

For once, I’d love to see some of college mop heads & commie reporters get dragged into combat, not with the United States G.I.’s, but between two foreign powers. Let them see the atrocities the Guerrillas inflict on their captives. Let the “flower-power-youth” and “flagg burning reporters” note first hand the pain inflicted by a Guerrilla leader and his desire to shove a bamboo shoot up someone’s rectal canal.

In closing, (yea, it’s about that time), I’d like to first thank the folks that have taken the time to read yet another rant of mine. Of course I understand that the majority of the people that have read this have misinterpreted most of what I said, you’ve not taken the time to read it fully or you’ve injected some of your own thoughts into my words. How do I know this? Because I deal with many people through email on a daily basis. I see where people overlook or completely ignore the written word on web pages at every opportunity. I see people clearly not following written directions. I know that most people have the I.Q.’s of moths. No big deal, I really don’t give a fuck.

Although there’s a minority of those that have read this that actually see what I am talking about…. this article wasn’t meant for you. It was meant for the “others”. Maybe it will shed an infinitesimal blink of light on their horrible existence. I doubt it. Most of the people I target with these rants get pissed off about one quarter of the way through and hit “back”. More than likely, they’ll never read the bottom few paragraphs, so they won’t mind me saying “Fuck you! Assholes!”. :-)