An overall look at global economies and the United States is credited for being one of the most advanced nations.   One of the stains on our good name though is our health care system.  We are the only advanced civilized nations that do not have a universal health care program.  If we couple rectify this problem we could not only save face when compared to other nations of similar statue, but possibly save lives of American citizens.

It’s not just one problem that flaws our system but several problems all linked together.  The largest problem is most likely the insurance companies. The majorities of these companies are privately owned and funded companies whose primary focus is to earn a profit.  Insurance companies in the health care industry treat a patient no differently than a car insurance company treats a car.  It’s always in their best interest to argue and dispute all claims they receive.  The less they pay, the more they keep.  Finding faults in claims like preexisting conditions, procedures inappropriately labeled as experimental, or anything to deny a claim.  Patients are treated like inanimate objects such as cars, and are able to do so legally without any recourse.  Even if it means someone is literally being sentenced to death.

Hypothetically speaking, a standard medical procedure that costs the hospital $1,000 to perform is billed to the insurance company for the full amount of $1,000.  The insurance company being a privately owned business with the sole objective of turning a profit pays the hospital $300.  The hospital can hire lawyers and dispute this for each and every claim, which will endure a significant amount of lost time and additional expenses, outweighing the unpaid amount they are rightfully owed.  Something the insurance company is counting on.  Forcing the hospital to cost-shift their expenses and bill $3,000 for the same procedure in the future, anticipating that the insurance company will pay $1,000 so the hospital is not operating at a loss.  This creates a significant problem for someone with no insurance who in turn is billed $3,000 for the $1,000 procedure.  Charging someone otherwise would put the hospital as being guilty of insurance fraud.

Insurance companies stay true to their nature by making it so difficult that sometimes filing a claim is next to impossible.  Most hospitals have staff whose sole job is to work directly with the insurance companies.  Even small family practices with a few nurses and a single doctor usually have a medical assistance that spends about half of their time just managing insurance paperwork.  This is just another technique used by the insurance companies to reduce the amount of claims paid and increase their profits.

The second issue that contributes to the faulty health care system is the quality of care and lack of regulation.  An overwhelming majority of ‘show-me drugs’ flood the prescription drug markets every year.  These drugs show virtually no difference to their counterparts and according to government regulations, are only required to be compared to a placebo.  Other advance nations must compare the new drugs to the old drugs in order to get a valid patent giving them rights of control over the market for specific drugs.  Not only does this reduce the amount of innovation but it floods the market with unnecessary drugs that doctors are persuaded to push onto their patients by the drug companies selling them.  Doctors are given no incentive to help people become well.  Their only incentives are from the drug companies who use them as tools to market a profit on drugs for conditions that don’t exist.  There are no incentives like in the UK where a doctor gets a bonus for increasing the overall health of their patients.

I personally have family from several countries like Israel, India, and Korea.  All of them refuse to be treated in the United States.  Not only is it more cost efficient for them to fly half way across the world, but also the quality is trustworthier.  In these other countries people become doctors for the purpose of helping people.  In the United States a doctor is known as a prestigious position used to gain power and money.

Possible solutions could be to centralize the insurance care providers into a single-payer system.  This would mix the young with the old, the sick with the healthy, and even out the costs.  Then stop cost-shifting and provide everyone with an honest price for services rendered.  By reducing the overall costs of health care (which went from 5% of the average income in 1940 to 15% in 2007) the system could save up to $600 billion a year.  Enough to insure everyone without insurance, twice.

We can’t just throw away the insurance companies and let the government take over though.  In fact the way the government works is part of the problem.  Democrats vs. Republicans, with the liberals and conservatives as well, they all have an opinion and care only about listening to themselves talk.  We have prisons built, owned, and operated by private companies that the government leases for a price that exceeds the costs to build and operate a prison of their own.  The government does this only because to build something like a prison would require too many politicians to agree on a contractor, location, and a number of other things.  Sometimes it’s simply easier to hire a third party and move on.  For the health care industry the third party is the insurance companies.

It can be difficult to motivate a member of congress who not only has decent health care coverage, but makes an average of $174,000 a year, almost five times the average American income.  Enough people need to become aware of the facts surrounding this issue and push their congressmen in the direction of fixing the problem.

Ironically we have turned into a nation where education on important issues has dwindled to near extinction and the focus has been re-directed towards Kim Kardashian and other pop culture icons.  Educational television stations such as National Geographic and Discovery have drifted away from their educational elements they were founded upon and now offer shows about a father and son team who make custom motorcycles while swearing back and forth at each other.  TLC used to be a new mothers helpful advisor about childbirth and being a parent, now it’s a nightmare with things like ‘toddlers and tiara’s’.  This is what we’ve become, and it’s scary to imagine how much further we are going to go before we hit bottom.

The answers are simple and practically staring us in the face.  In order to solve this problem we simply need to turn off the TV, put down the latte, stand up, and address them.  This complex we have where we believe that it doesn’t affect me, until it affects me, is going to be the death of us all… quite literally.

I have to take a “Critical Thinking” class in order to graduate this semester.  I registered for English 126, just because I’m naturally good in English, then later discover its actually a Philosophy class in disguise.

At first I loved it, questioning reality, existence, and pretty much everything.  Then he started putting religion on the table and asking us to question that, which got me even more excited.  We were reading Plato’s ‘Theaeteus’ which literally ends with Socrates being executed for blasphemy.  Then we start reading Rene Descartes ‘Discourse on Method’ and ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’, which I loathe with every fiber of my being.

Descartes goes on about the “existence of God” and apparently in one of his meditations proves God exists.  I’ve read it three times now, I still can’t make the connection. Then he jumps ahead says “I am, therefore I exist”, and boom with no logic involved what-so-ever we are moving along with those ideas established as fact.  I can’t debate them, I can’t acknowledge that they are wrong…. in my college level class its a fact that God exists, without my ability to question it.  Yes, my California community college professor is telling me that God exists and to accept that, and to now write a critically thought provoking response about it.  

English 126 is one level higher than the highest level I would ever need to take in order to graduate from my school.  I need English 122 as both a pre-requisite to take 126 and all I need in order to graduate.  I’m taking 126 because I like English class, and need it to fulfil my critical thinking requirements!  I could have easily taken History, Math, Computer Science even (my major), but nope English is an easy grade for me.  Normally… Yet, I’m taking this class and being told to “think critically” but can’t think on my own about what we are reading?!?  WTF kind of bullshit is this?

So now I say fuck it!  I’m writing based on my own thoughts.  If he asks me a bullshit question, he gets a bullshit answer.  Today’s assignment is to answer the following two questions:

1. What role does God play in Descartes’ claim that he has knowledge of the material world?
2. How might an atheist gain knowledge of the material world?

I’m not allowed to exceed 300 words, and I managed to answer both questions based on ‘thinking critically’ and the information presented.  Here is my response.  If he wants to fail me, fuck him.

Descartes seeks to prove the existence of God, a supposed benevolent deity that commands blind obedience otherwise one will suffer an eternity of torture. In order to have an afterlife among God and his people one must believe, yet God leaves no evidence to prove his existence or presence, forcing a logical mind to wander into doubt. God being an omniscient God knows the mind of a doubter despite his or her admission into Pascal’s wager and they also suffer an eternity of torture. In 33 A. D. Epicurus said “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able, and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God.” This single quote that predates any of Descartes writings by more than 1500 years debunks everything his arguments are based on.

The meditations of Descartes are based upon the premise that the existence of God is clear and distinct. Without ever establishing that God indubitably exists his argument is flawed. An Atheist might have a better notion to recognize that the material world exists because they ask the right questions and don’t cloud their judgment with two thousand-year-old fables.

Even through in a quote from Epicurus which should piss him off on his own there.

This is a quick easy way for virtually anyone to get a lot of people to visit their profile page on deviantART.com, using just this little javascript hack.

The way it works is by creating an iframe inside your profile page and then visiting the random deviant link every 5 seconds.  Some premium members have a visitors module displayed on their page which shows who has visited their profile.  Leave the script running long enough and you’ve put your name on thousands of pages and increased your exposure and hopefully earned a return visit from those random deviants.

I’ve been using this script for a while and it works fairly well.  So well in fact its how I met my current girlfriend over a year ago.  She saw that I visited her page and came by my page to say hi.

So here’s how it works:

1. Ensure your online status is listed as ‘online’.  Click  in the top right corner and select ‘online’ in the drop down menu.
2. Drag this bookmarklet to your bookmarks menu bar — dA Hack
3. Visit any user’s profile then click the bookmarklet you just made

This script will run as long as you keep the window open.  To check and see if it is working scroll down to where the comments would be on the profile you selected and they should be replaced with a window that keeps loading random members pages.  Don’t freak about your comments disappearing, that’s just how this script works.  If you want open another window and you can see the comments are right where they are supposed to be.

Just a simple list of verses to use to argue against anyone trying to “persuade” me that Christianity is not only a force of good in the world, and a lifestyle that all should follow, but is actually a book of inconsistent lies and corruption.

• 1 Corinthians 11:14 — (Men should not have long hair)
• 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 — (Women should remain silent in church)
• Deuteronomy 13:6-16 — (Death penalty for Apostasy)
• Deuteronomy 20:10-14 — (Attack city, kill all men, keep women, children as spoils of war)
• Deuteronomy 21:18-21 — (Death penalty for a rebellious son)
• Deuteronomy 22:19-25 — (Kill non-virgin/kill adulterers/rapists)
• Deuteronomy 22:28-29 — (Pay virgin’s parents for raping her)
• Ecclesiastes 1:18 — (Knowledge is bad)
• Exodus 21:1-7 — (Rules for buying slaves)
• Exodus 35:2 — (Death for working on the Sabbath)
• Ezekiel 9:5-6 — (Murder women/children)
• Ezekiel 23:19-20 — (A whore who had sex with men hung like donkeys)
• Galatians 5:2-4 — (If you are circumcised, Christ has nothing for you)
• Genesis 1:3,4,5,11,12,16 — (God creates light, night and day, plants grow, before creating sun)
• Genesis 3:16 — (Man shall rule over woman)
• Jeremiah 19:9 — (Cannibalism)
• John 3:18 — (He who believes in Jesus is saved, he that doesn’t is condemned)
• John 5:46-47 — (Jesus references Old Testament)
• 1 Kings 7:23 — (Pi equals 3)
• Leviticus 3:1-17 — (Procedure for animal sacrifice)
• Leviticus 19:19 — (No mixed fabrics in clothing)
• Leviticus 19:27 — (Don’t trim hair or beard)
• Leviticus 19:28 — (No tattoos)
• Leviticus 20:9 — (Death for cursing father or mother)
• Leviticus 20:10 — (Death for adultery)
• Leviticus 20:13 — (Death for gay men)
• Leviticus 20:15 — (Death for bestiality)
• Leviticus 20:18 — (No sex with a woman on her period)
• Leviticus 21:17-23 — (Ugly people, lame, dwarfs, not welcome on altar)
• Leviticus 25:45 — (Strangers can be bought as slaves)
• Luke 12:33 — (Sell your possessions, and give to the poor)
• Luke 14:26 — (You must hate your family and yourself to follow Jesus)
• Mark 10:11-12 — (Leaving your spouse for another is adultery)
• Mark 10:21-22 — (Sell your possessions and give to the poor)
• Mark 10:24-25 — (Next to impossible for rich to get into heaven)
• Mark 16:15-16 — (Those who hear the gospel and don’t believe go to hell)
• Matthew 5:17-19 — (Jesus says he has come to enforce the laws of the Old Testament)
• Matthew 6:5-6 — (Pray in secret)
• Matthew 6:18 — (Fast for Lent in secret)
• Matthew 9:12 — (The healthy don’t need a doctor, the sick do)
• Matthew 10:34-37 — (Jesus comes with sword, turns families against each other, those that love family more than him are not worthy)
• Matthew 12:30 — (If you’re not with Jesus, you’re against him)
• Matthew 15:4 — (Death for not honoring your father and mother)
• Matthew 22:29 — (Jesus references Old Testament)
• Matthew 24:37 — (Jesus references Old Testament)
• Numbers 14:18 — (Following generations blamed for the sins of previous ones)
• Psalms 137:9 — (Violence against children)
• Revelation 6:13 — (The stars fell to earth like figs)
• Revelation 21:8 — (Unbelievers, among others, go to hell)
• 1 Timothy 2:11-12 — (Women subordinate and must remain silent)
• 1 Timothy 5:8 — (If you don’t provide for your family, you are an infidel)
• Zechariah 14:2 — (Women ravished when city is taken in battle)

In closing, here is something else to think about.

This is a very quick low down and dirty guide to getting eBooks for free.  I’m cutting and pasting my personal books marks here which some aren’t valid anymore, but I totally intend to come back later and edit this.  Just a rule of thumb, the more popular anything is online, the easier it is to find.  Textbooks are some of the hardest to find items, possibly because a lot of professors write their own.

To convert your books HamsterSoft (windows only) is a very beautifully built program and works wonders.  Calibre however is the industry standard and HamsterSoft uses their code to make their own app.  Calibre is also a much more universal tool, and includes a reader.  Comical is best for CBR and CBZ formats, since those books are mostly graphics such as comic books and children’s novels.

Anyway, busy day…. here you go.

My favorites:

1. http://www.gutenberg.org (Mostly public domain books)
2. http://www.ebook3000.com/
3. http://ebookee.org
4. http://www.manybooks.net

Other sites:

1. http://library.nu
2. http://gen.lib.rus.ec
3. http://textbooknova.com
4. http://wormhole.in (specializes in math/science-need to register)
5. http://ebooksbay.org
6. http://warez-bb.org (need to register and then go to eBooks)
7. http://www.updatebooks.com
8. http://ebookshare.net
9. http://www.giuciao.com
10. http://www.feedurbrain.com
11. http://www.freeetextbooks.com (need to register)
12. http://ebooksshares.org (need to register)
13. http://onebigtorrent.org
14. http://www.downeu.com
15. http://ebook-torrent-library.info (need to register)
16. http://forums.mvgroup.org (need to register)
17. http://theaudiobookbay.com (audiobooks)

When?: March 1st to March 31st

Why?: Due to the continuos campaigns and litigations concerning Internet Censorship such as S.O.P.A., P.I.P.A., and A.C.T.A. The closure of sites such as Megaupload under the charges of “Piracy” and “Conspiration” we MUST take actions against Film, Music, Book, and Magazine Companies and other media companies.
In March comes the first Economic Report

How?: DON’T buy any magazine, newspaper, DON’T download ANY song (Legally or Illegally) DON’T watch any movie at the cinema, DON’T buy ANY DVD or videogame and DON’T buy any book. It doesn’t matter how much do you want, wait until April. Let’s give ALL the governments an economic hit that can be visible.

THIS ACTION’S MESSAGE:
“COPYRIGHTED MEDIA WON’T BE ALLOWED WHILE INTERNET IS BEING CENSORED”.

DOWNLOAD AND SPREAD THIS IMAGE ON ANY WEBSITE YOU CAN, WE NEED FULL SUPPORT.

P.S.: If you think this doesn’t concern you, Megaupload’s owners are from New Zealand, today (01/19/2012) they were deported to the USA and will be prosecuted under a crime that doesn’t EXIST IN THEIR COUNTRY, under a law that has NOT been approved yet.

Today a large majority of sites are protesting two proposed bills SOPA and PIPA.  These two bills are designed with the idea in mind to stop online piracy. When everyone screams that this is not a problem, so what, or that this is the internet it falls on deaf ears in congress.

Piracy is a problem for the movie industry, mainly because its forcing them to innovate and provide means that give us the services we want. I subscribe to Hulu Plus and Netflix Instant, I own a computer but not a television. (I avoid TV.com due to their horrible design and features, their Android app doesn’t prevent my screen from turning off while watching a video so I have to pause it every 15 seconds.) Now because I wanted to watch Dexter and the Big Bang Theory recently I had no means which were available to me to watch it. So I was forced to pirate it. I watch House, Castle, and a number of other shows, but don’t mind the commercials I get while watching them on Hulu. Piracy is not about stealing… its about getting a service which isn’t offered to you.

The SOPA and PIPA laws are focused on sending people to jail for providing the services that the entertainment industry refuses to combat through innovation. But then again so what, right? Afterall breaking the law is still breaking the law…. except that’s SOPA is not designed to combat piracy. It’s designed to censor the internet.

Life without the internet

Essentially we are going to give control of the internet to the corporations of America.  These are the same company’s who tried to stop the release of the VCR and MP3 player stating that they would damage their market. They already have partial control of things like YouTube and abuse the hell out of it. In protest of the DNS takedown of Megaupload recently Will.i.am, P Diddy, Kanye West, Chris Brown, Jamie Foxx, Kim Kardashian, Lil John, The Game, Floyd Mayweather, Serena Williams, and Ciara created a song. It was taken down by the record companies. They had no legal, moral, ethical, or any other rights to the song but had the ability to take it down anyway… no questions asked.

But because we have the internet we have, people are able to re-upload it and share it and now I’m able to share it with you right here, in the video below.

If this were the post-SOPA internet, likely you would never even know it existed. The record industry would have the ability to censor it from the Internet, and since SOPA says anyone hosting a link to illegal content or even the intent of hosting anything they will have the right to shut you down.

I am a small time web developer, I make websites to share content and have fun and whatever. My most profitable web site is basically a peer-to-peer network for Army soldiers to share Army files. Nothing secret, or fancy, mostly powerpoint files on things like how to administer first aid to a bullet wound. According to the U.S. copyright laws I am able to use copyrighted images in those files under the fair use ruling because they are for educational use. However the platform exists where anyone can stop by and share whatever they want. Actually that happened once, where they started sharing answers to online ACCP exams before I put a stop to it.

SOPA would give me the option of bankruptcy or jail.

• make a call
• sign the petition

What can I read to get more information?

Try these links:

• Wikipedia’s articles on SOPA and PIPA
• Statement from Wikipedia editors announcing decision to black out
• Wikimedia Foundation press release
• Blog post from Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner
• Electronic Frontier Foundation blog post on the problems with SOPA/PIPA

HAL became operational on 12 January 1997, at the HAL Laboratories in Urbana, Illinois, as production number 3; in the film 2001 the activation year was 1992, and 1991 in earlier screenplays. In addition to maintaining the Discovery One spacecraft systems during the interplanetary mission to Jupiter, HAL is capable of speech, speech recognition, facial recognition, natural language processing, lip reading, art appreciation, interpreting and reproducing emotional behaviours, reasoning, and playing chess.

I’ve developed an unhealthy obsession with carrying a bag everywhere I go.  Not just because of my need to have my laptop every where, but just to have something… almost like a woman needs a purse.

Most of the time though its full of some geeky gadgets like my kindle, a charger, or even my TI graphing calculator.  I also get kinda artsy carrying my moleskin notebook, a hardcover drawing book, and some drawing pencils or pigma graphic pens.

The Ogio Mastermind backpack to the left is my main packpack.  While the mastermind model is discontinued you can still find some in various places around the net, except the white plaid version that I have.  I had to hunt this one down and was so excited after 2 months of searching that I got one.  I’ve had to replace a zipper myself my hand, and now the inside of the bag is starting to rip but its still my favorite bag.  Two pouches on each side, one on the top with a waterproof zipper (before I had to replace it), a pencil pouch, and a file folder pocket.  Then there is the laptop pocket and the main pocket.

Then there is my Timbuk2 Messenger bags.  The blue one is too small for my laptop, but its pretty much a permanent home for some of my drawing books and pencils.  The grey one is perfect for carrying lots of books, but after slamming into my hip all day can wear out my shoulder fast so I don’t use it as much as I’d like.

Then I have my Spec-ops “T.H.E. Pack, 3-Day Assault Pack”.  Although mine is solid olive green and is in storage.  I mention it because I used it all throughout my time in the Army and it shows almost no wear at all.  I would love to take this bag and redesign it to be like the Mastermind bag that I have.  Even if the bag costs me a couple hundred dollars, as long as it would last and I wouldn’t have to make mild repairs every year before school I would make the investment.  Especially since I carry this bag around with me everywhere.  I mean girls spend $800 on a Gucci purse, why can’t I spend half that on something built to last?