Das Buch Wer mitmacht, hat Recht!

It looks like the fifth submarine cable has been cut.

Are there still people out there calling this a conspiracy or accidents?
I hope not.

Take my advice: Stop Now, People Start Noticing!

<sarcasm>
The terrible techno-terrorists have no internet.
The war on terror is won!
Everyone go back to bed.
Your government is doing a great job.
</sarcasm>

Who’s next in line?
Any takers?
North Korea?
Anyone?

From what I hear, the demand for people experienced in cutting submarine cables is quite high at the moment.
I smell big business.
Joint ventures with submarine cable repair companies would be win-win.
I’m sure the US can supply plenty of contractors to mess up the job.

After someone compared my sarcasm and irony spiked view of world politics with poetry I felt like getting down and dirty, jumping onto the haiku bandwagon.

Oil Trade In Euro
The Big One Will Not Like You
Brings Democracy

I kinda like it, even tho I’m not exactly known for being a haiku fan ;-)

I just hope my inner crystal ball is wrong in what I foresee for Iran’s near future.
It already happened once, they came, liberated, brought democracy, and found it to be so cozy there, that they’re still in the neighborhood.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, [insert your deity here] may help us all.

Going over my logfiles I noticed something (not that uncommon) today.
But well, you know how it all goes…
Linux nerd is bored, Linux nerd checks logfiles, Linux nerd checks whois info on IPs trying to hack him…

[...]
Oct 6 * * sshd*: Invalid user displays from 84.174.181.72
Oct 6 * * sshd*: Invalid user finder from 84.174.181.72
Oct 6 * * sshd*: Invalid user client from 84.174.181.72
Oct 6 * * sshd*: Invalid user client from 84.174.181.72
Oct 6 * * sshd*: Invalid user pub from 84.174.181.72
[...]

Well, it’s not like I’m not used to getting tones of these, but this is what made me throw up in my mouth:

There was a very interesting interview with Thomas Kliche a while ago in German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

A large and established part of society is made up of people who believe in authority. These are people who were educated to submit to power, believe in strength, and despise weakness. It is enough if the moderate give up and become silent. Then authoritarians can prevail.

This quote is Kliche’s key point and I totally have to agree. I can see this happening in Germany right now:

• Radical authoritarians currently in power are passing very strict but useless, not to say: harmful, laws
• They sell fake safety at a very high price: we pay with our liberties and privacy
• A lot of disillusioned Germans are more than willing to accept

So, why don’t we hear more from the last few sane folks in Germany?
That is because people are lazy by nature, and people don’t want to get hurt. That’s why so few people actually speak up. The rest either fear getting prosecuted, or, even worse, think it’s too late, or no use at all to say something.

I’m posting this without any further comment, except for:
watch at your on discretion and keep an open mind.

zeitgeistmovie.com: website

zeitgeistmovie.com: statement
zeitgeistmovie.com: list of sources
zeitgeistmovie.com: clarifications

bigger version @ video.google.com

—>

i’m the FIRST, err wait, no i’m not, i just got carried away by previous discussions

the word i was looking for was “fast”.
but then again, by definition, i should re-phrase it to “lucky?”
since it was the other party that was fast.

anyways.

at first i got told that getting your social security card in the USA is a PITA (picking the right one is up to the reader’s discretion).

the paperwork i got from the company handling the exchange read it would take something in the range of 4 weeks.
as soon as i got here i got told: “man, better do this right away, it might take 1.5, maybe 2 months”.

so i went to the SAA in hayward, having kinda mixed feelings.

but lucky for me, i got all the paperwork right and perfect.
the friendly lady (weird, i get friendly people at DMV, at SSA,... while everyone keeps telling me how unfriendly the officials are :x) at the counter told me: “sir, your documents checked out a-ok, you should get your card within two weeks”.
this was weird, i asked her about that, and she replied again: “yes sir, your documents are perfect, you should get it in two weeks”.

well, that was on tuesday last week.
guess what was in the mail on monday (yesterday).

yes. you guessed right, it was my social sec card.
in just under 7 days, or let’s say: under 5 workdays.

huh?

i got a checking account today.
it din’t take a social security number, which was kind of cool, since i don’t have that yet, but a shitload of info.

the bank: bank of america.
the mission: get a checking account.
the info needed:
2 kinds of photo ID (passport & visa worked for me)
US home address
country of residence home address
full name
a nice mugshot so i can have a photo on my atm card
annual income
employer
etc etc etc

i can give them my social security number later, that’s nice!
and getting a checking account with minimum balance of 5-something is even nicer!

interesting sidenote:
when i noticed that the guy opening my account needed “an awefull lot of info” i got the following answer:
“well, it used to be less, but since the patriot act….”

here we go again.