A Matter of Time

I'm losing hope that anything will or even can get better for America.

Hopefully I'm wrong to think that people won't care enough to do anything.

The issue is, everyone is too comfortable. They still have something to lose. We still have money, as worthless as it is becoming, and homes, and families, and possibly most importantly...entertainment. As long as people are entertained, they don't have the will or desire to pursue issues with whats wrong with this country. All they care about is being entertained.

With each generation, things get worse and worse though. Nobody stops to consider what the next generation is losing, because it's not that big of a deal, and it's only a small thing this time around. And the problem with that next generation is, they won't miss it because they never had it. Then that generation is comfortable with how everything is, they only see what they have as normal, then something else is taken away. But it's not enough to incite anyone to action. And the previous generation? They're old and only trying to take care of themselves and incapable of doing anything. Another generation comes along that has even less...but they never had the things the previous generations had so they don't know what they are missing either. It's a downward trend, and one that a government given enough time can use to take every last shred of freedom from people without anyone doing anything to stop it.

It is a slow decay. We've gone from one generation where a president doing surveillance on someone gets them impeached, to where a president does surveillance on everyone and nothing happens. We've lost privacy. We've lost security. We're losing, if not lost already, our freedom of speech. And people don't really notice. What is noticed? Facebook Messenger permissions.

So far, the one freedom anyone seems to really be fighting for is the second amendment, the right to bear arms. Given enough time, perhaps we would have seen a generation that didn't really use guns, and wouldn't have had an issue losing them. There are many countries already that have outlawed firearms. It only makes sense that the US will one day do the same. As people continue to fight to keep their right to bear arms, nobody seems to be fighting to prevent schools and the media from teaching our kids that guns are evil and bad...and one day they will be the ones deciding whether we keep that right or not.

Facebook Messenger vs NSA

I was thinking the other day as I continue to see people freak out about the standard permissions that it requires for it to function...why does everyone freak out about Facebook permissions, but nobody cares that the NSA can and probably does listen in to your calls, your emails, your texts, track your location, and even use your phone while it's "off", and all without your permission or a warrant? And it's not just limited to the NSA, but even the police are spying on you...

Boundaries of freedom are crossed and obliterated by your own government. Facebook, which you have the personal choice of not using and have to accept the permissions and is actually bound by laws that, not being a lawyer or anything like that, I would assume prevent them from actually doing anything people think they will do. At worst, Facebook will use the data it collects for better advertisements to increase revenue. At worst, the government will take you away to a prison without charge or trial indefinitely.

Now consider what your spending your time worrying about. Included links to articles concerning NSA spying using cell phones:

• http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/08/cellphone-data-spying-nsa-police/3902809
• http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/06/technology/security/nsa-turn-on-phone/
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-tracking-cellphone-locations-worldwide-snowden-documents-show/2013/12/04/5492873a-5cf2-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html
• http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data

You should also remember that in this day and age, if a company as large as Facebook is in fact watching you on your phone and reading your messages without your knowledge that there is a good chance you'll know that they are doing that. For how many people they would have working on such a project, at least one of them would have the good conscience to come forward.

I've included the current permissions for Facebook Messenger and Google Hangouts app taken from Google Play. Notice how they are almost exactly the same? If you want to have issues with Facebook Messenger, then perhaps you should worry about Google as well as most messaging apps and stop using all of them. At least if they do what you seem worried they will, they asked for permission first.


Facebook Messenger Permissions:

• Identity
• find accounts on the device
• read your own contact card
• Contacts/Calendar
• read your contacts
• Location
• approximate location (network-based)
• precise location (GPS and network-based)
• SMS
• edit your text messages (SMS or MMS)
• receive text messages (SMS)
• read your text messages (SMS or MMS)
• send SMS messages
• receive text messages (MMS)
• Phone
• directly call phone numbers
• read call log
• Photos/Media/Files
• test access to protected storage
• modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
• Camera/Microphone
• take pictures and videos
• record audio
• Wi-Fi connection information
• view Wi-Fi connections
• Device ID & call information
• read phone status and identity
• Other
• receive data from Internet
• download files without notification
• run at startup
• prevent device from sleeping
• view network connections
• install shortcuts
• change your audio settings
• read Google service configuration
• draw over other apps
• full network access
• read sync settings
• control vibration
• change network connectivity

Google Hangouts Permissions:

• Identity
• find accounts on the device
• add or remove accounts
• Contacts/Calendar
• read your contacts
• modify your contacts
• Location
• approximate location (network-based)
• precise location (GPS and network-based)
• SMS
• read your text messages (SMS or MMS)
• receive text messages (SMS)
• send SMS messages
• edit your text messages (SMS or MMS)
• receive text messages (MMS)
• Phone
• directly call phone numbers
• Photos/Media/Files
• modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
• test access to protected storage
• Camera/Microphone
• take pictures and videos
• record audio
• Wi-Fi connection information
• view Wi-Fi connections
• Device ID & call information
• read phone status and identity
• Other
• receive data from Internet
• read instant messages
• Exchanges messages and receives sync notifications from Google servers.
• full network access
• control vibration
• run at startup
• use accounts on the device
• view network connections
• control Near Field Communication
• read Google service configuration
• prevent device from sleeping
• change your audio settings
• pair with Bluetooth devices
• change network connectivity
• send sticky broadcast

Are Police a bigger hazard than speeders?

As a truck driver, I see police with people pulled over every single day. Sometimes 4-5 people in a night pulled over. Occasionally they have people just stopped in the outside lane because there isn't anywhere to actually pull over (and those people are probably idiots that just stop in the road anyway). By law, people are supposed to move over a lane on the highways when driving past cop cars and emergency vehicles on the side of the road, and so everyone has to change lanes to go around them...and that's a pain during rush hour.

When traffic is heavy, it can be more difficult to change lanes, and sometimes people are not the most considerate and don't bother to leave room for that. Then you also have the looky-loos who stop paying attention to the road to try and see what's going on. And all of that become road hazards that lead to accidents that become road hazards that lead to accidents that become road hazards...and is an endless loop that ends with everyone dead. Probably not exactly though.

I'm sure anyone who has driven past these cops who have people pulled over, probably for doing 70 in a 60 or similar, knows what I'm talking about. Those people speeding down the road, in my opinion as I haven't researched, are less of a danger than the cops who have them pulled over. Generally, people are only speeding when there isn't high amounts of traffic, because when there is traffic it's really hard to speed. Does speeding really harm anyone? Probably no more than anyone else doing the speed limit. The real danger comes to the speeding vehicle and the likeliness of them surviving an accident and that should be their own decision.

The only real reason for cops to pull people over is to write tickets. Tickets don't prevent speeding or make roads safer. Tickets make money. In the end its all about coercing money from people. Police even have a quota system for writing tickets also, but that's a whole other issue...

Maybe people would be safer if cops spend less time sitting around waiting to pull people over for speeding or not wearing seat belts and actually served and protected people as their motto misleadingly suggests they do.

Facebook Messenger app IS NOT EVIL

Stop falling for headlines struggling to get attention. Yes, the permissions allow the app to use your phone to take pictures, videos, send sms, make phone calls, etc. But you know what? Every app that uses those features requires the same permissions! It's not scary. All those headlines are simply misleading, and misinforming the public simply to get more page views, likes, clicks, etc, because those things make them money. Would you care about an article that said "FB Messenger app requires standard permissions!"? Probably not.

To add some perspective here, Google, the company that is responsible for Android, has access to all the same things that these articles are warning people about. They have ALWAYS had it, because it is their Operation System that is on the phone. You log into Google to use the phone, and they store all your contacts and information. Yet, nobody bats an eye about Google having all that information. So think about that when you worry about the standard permission that an app REQUIRES to enable you to send someone a picture, a video, or other. Those permissions are named as such by Google, not Facebook or anyone else.

Facebook even explains it all themselves here: https://www.facebook.com/help/210676372433246

Religious freedom...to be assholes

It's now been 'legally' determined that companies can deny certain Healthcare benefits based on the 'religious' beliefs of those in charge thanks to Hobby Lobby. And it's bs.

I'm going to put aside the fact that I don't believe companies should be forced to provide health insurance to begin with in what is supposed to be a country full of freedom and liberty. This isn't a free country with liberties, and they do coerce companies to follow their unjust laws. Companies being forced to provide health insurance should be the issue, not the issue of what parts of it are enforced.

If companies are forced to provide the service, it shouldn't also allow companies to impose their religious beliefs on others. And this one step will further that ability as companies demand more 'religious freedom' to deny more people things, such as what I've recently read how they want to be exempt from having to hire LGBT because of religion. At what point are they exempt from providing the insurance because they don't believe in it? I've heard of a religious person not go to the hospital and instead pray about their wound or illness. And I'm sure that would have been in the news... 'Man dies praying for healing from flesh wound rather than seeking medical assistance'.

To save money, it wouldn't be long before almost every company started denying whatever they could for 'religious beliefs' if it cut costs. What's worse is that these companies make so much money that it doesn't even make sense. It's not as if they can't afford it. These people are simply assholes. Self-centered, sociopathic assholes. 

Why don't we recycle EVERYTHING??

Trash is an issue. It fills up landfills with waste that isn't biodegradable, and sometimes even toxic. This doesn't make any sense to me. We acknowledge that it's an issue and something we need to do something about, and yet the easiest solutions are not being implemented. How hard would it really be to ensure that everything produced and consumed is either recyclable or biodegradable? 

(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures 2007. Table 3: Materials Discarded in the Municipal Waste Stream 1960 to 2007.)

There are few things I would care for government to do, but if we have such an entity that could do so, why could they not simply regulate it so that everything is to be recyclable or biodegradable so that we would no longer be simply filling landfills with items that will essentially last forever within that landfill? Even better if everything could simply be recyclable, though I realize that isn't probably realistic. The government is all about regulating everything anyway...

I've found that recycling things is likely not happening as much as it should because it isn't convenient or easy. In attempting to find out how to recycle things such as metal hangers and old electronics, I've found that there are websites (such as http://search.earth911.com/) that will help you find locations that will take those items. Which is helpful, but then you have to have time to take it to those places yourself, and hopefully they are nearby and open during the hours you're not working.

In the end it's all about money. The environment takes a backseat to the all mighty dollar. It's not cost effective to make everything recyclable. It's probably not cost effective to recycle everything either. I sure do hope they make it cost effective to build and fly rockets off the planet before we can no longer live here at least. Just saying.

Soccer explodes in the US???

I'm seriously confused as to why soccer is so popular suddenly. In the states, soccer has never been the popular sport. But this year it's suddenly the biggest thing which just isn't a typical thing for the US. I can't recall seeing so much about it on news, tv, the internet, or even facebook before this year. What is going on? Did I miss something?

I can't say I'm much into sports to begin with, so I'm entirely up on anything sports. One thing I wonder is, are people just so bored that they decided to get excited over soccer? Or perhaps, being the conspiracy minded person I am, the government is using tv media to hype up the sport to get the American people distracted by it while they do devious things behind closed doors? I wouldn't put it past our supreme overlords to do such a thing.

Soccer has always been a thing for kids and soccer moms, not sports fans. I'm not a sports fan at all, so this is the time when I shouldn't have to deal with all the sports fanaticism. Stop it already.