Anti-Vax Nonsense

There have always been anti-vaccine nutjobs but things really took off with a doctor in the UK named Andrew Wakefield. He argued that while the individual measles, mumps and rubella vaccines were fine, the combined MMR caused Autism. By pure coincidence he was looking to market his own measles vaccine so no red flags there.

Hbomberguy lays things out in the video. Fair warning, he can be over the top but he does explain why the original study was flawed and why the Lancet had to retract it.

On Fluoride or what's a mouthful of Cavities among friends

Looks like Utah has banned Fluoride in its drinking water.

Rebecca Watson is a science blogger who does a good job of looking at scientific studies and putting them in terms a layman can understand. So here she is on fluoride.

These guys are such assholes

Quite a number of beneficiaries rely on their checks to live month to month so they are probably not going to be happy to wait until the next month espcially if it impacts everyone. Medicare will also be affected if SSA temporarily goes dark:

• You sign up for Medicare through SSA so beneficiaries may not have the health coverage they need.
• Medicare premiums can be withheld from the SSA benefit payments and no paid premium = no coverage

Looking for ways to cut costs and eliminate waste and abuse is a good thing. However, the administration is going in and playing slash and burn. These are complex systems and time should be spent getting to understand the business rules and how they interconnect with other systems and outside partners. Not to mention having people who actually know the languages some of the older systems use (cough COBOL)

Bonus Moment of Dumbassitude

Yeah, I saw this, and laughed out loud—"how obsessed you are with the federal government"! Imagine (e.g.) Andy Reid saying to fans or to reporters, "It's so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with the Kansas City Chiefs."

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— Thaddeus (@democracywork.bsky.social) March 21, 2025 at 6:48 PM

Bonehead move for today - Doing a word search on a document repository to eliminate the dreaded "DEI"

Someone really doesn't want to acknowledge the acommplishments of women and people of color. Or history even if it isn't a positive moment in US military history

Pete Hegseth Banned Images of ‘Enola Gay’ Plane in DEI Crackdown

One such case, the Associated Press reported, is a photograph of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945.

Orchestral Manoeuvers In The Dark - Enola Gay

And now some tunes

Thomas Benjamin Wild, Esq - No More Fucks to give

Frank Turner -  Thatcher Fucked the Kids

Jess Silk - Stranger on the Tube

The Men They Couldn't Hang - Ghosts of Cable Street

Almost 9 years

 Why did I stop?  Let's face it, my life isn't that interesting. Why am I starting again?  I pissed at the direction this country is going.  I'm pissed that a bunch of nothings have taken over  government agencies that they know nothing about, don't understand  and are completely incompetent.  How many agencies have had to scramble to rehire staff because the BOIs and MWMs don't know the mission.

By the way BOI = Band of Incels and MWM = Medicore White Men.   It used to be Loser White Men but I realized they aren't complete loser but definitely not as wonderful as the think they are.  I mean really - who in IT wouldn''t bother to secure a server if they had any basic common sense.

So I occasionally go off and rant but will more likely post cat pictues and links to music I like.

Beginning with the curent crop - Mairi, Loki, and Huckleberry

 

The Gnawing

The little bugger is getting big and it seems annoying Huckleberry is his favorite activity.

And Loki makes four

Meet the newest addition to the household

He told me his name is Loki which I think fits - I can see the mischief written all over him. 

He showed up on my porch on Saturday much to the dismay of Ceridwyn and Huckleberry.

Voices from the Past

My cousin sent me this recording of my father in some kind of interview that happened between by brother my Richard's and my birth.  It is strange in that I don't recognize his voice (could be due to the tape quality or that he has been gone for 20 years) but I recognize his views.

Semantics

My sister died yesterday. Did she die in a car accident or was she killed in one.  It doesn't matter - she is still gone.  Love you Renie

Well I think this is intersesting

I was at a presentation of new data management technologies. I'm not a database expert by any means but I know the principles of how traditional relational databases work.  You have tables with rows that contain information such as demographic info (name, ssn, dob, address, etc) and another that contains purchase history from some store(name, address, item, price, quantity, etc) they are linked together by some common element like name or ssn.   Those types of database can be locked so that only certain types of people could have access to a table or even to the row level.

The thing I find interesting (or maybe disturbing) is that certain agency who had a certain well know ndata breach used a technology that didn't fit into the traditional model.  They used a new technology that has lots of potential but just didn't have the same level of security built in. Which explains why a certain individual was able to steal a lot of embarrassing data.

I say on many of my phone calls "hello department of defense at Ft. Meade" which is what a certain agency used to be referred to before the government actually acknowledged its existence.  True story, back in the 80's, a work friend agreed to give me a perm (I know, I know). I asked where her husband worked and she gave the "DOD at ft. meade" answer. When I responded "How long has your husband worked at NSA", she gave me a horrified look.  I thought it was a joke because it was so known that is what you said if worked there as was "I work for the US. Government at Langley" if you worked for the CIA.

A side note - I threw Dan Brown's book "Digital Fortress" across the room because one of the main characters didn't know that the NSA existed at Ft. Meade in the 90's.  Well after the NSA got a well labelled exit of the BW parkway. That and there was apparently no way to shutdown any servers at NSA. 

I am going to be watching the browsing stats on this post with interest if only because I mention NSA.  BTW, I have no insider knowledge of anything that may have happened with the NSA data breach.  This was all info shared by the instructor of the presentation I attended so there is a FWIW aspect.
Updated: to add the word expert because of course I am not a database

Socialism may be similar to Commuinsm but for fuck sake learn the difference between both and National Socialism

Aka Facism/National Socialism. Fucking morons (or in tea party lingo Morans)

Background check question

One of the arguments against background checks is that it doesn't prevent criminals from obtaining weapons.  My response - isn't it worth one person with a restraining order being prevented from obtaining a gun or even knowing that they own one worth it?

My experiece with sexual assualt.

There has been lots of web traffic lately on "rape" culture.  Just to be clear, I absolutely believe it exists. My own experience with it occurred many moons ago when I was 13/14 years old.  I was visiting my sister and her then husband for a few days in the summer.  They had a friend who offered to lead me around on a horse. I accepted and once the ride was over, he proceeded to back me into a corner of the barn and basically groped my breasts.  I pushed him off and he backed down. Other than the fact that he could have done far worse, my belief that I had done something wrong to encourage his behavior kept me from saying anything. When I finally told my sister, years later, she believed me but was also angry that I hadn't said anything at the time. I think there is still a societal pressure that keeps women/girls from reporting this shit because their actions will be construed as asking for it.

What it really means when you make my cry

Okay, I am in my 50's and I tend to respond to stressful circumstances with tears. What people have to realize that because I am of a certain age, is that I am usually really pissed off but has been conditioned to not express anger.  I really want to do seriously bodily harm -  thank conditioning for you current state.

Things that make me want to scream – Volume 1 Hypocrisy Edition

Now there are quite a few things that make me want to scream on a regular basis (and by scream, I mean I want to slap someone).  Here are the current top two

1.  Benghazi

Right Wing Troll Notification System

What about the Embassy attacks under Bush the younger?

Here is the . concern troll response

• Here we have a twofer - Revisionist geography and a reference to the Clenis
• Only dead Ambassadors count and Bush never covered  up the numerous attacks under his watch - another twofer. Too bad there wasn't a coverup  
• Benghazi worse than Watergate - The stupid it burns in the people spewing that line

     Mother Jones can have the last word on this

2. Obama won’t enforce the LAW

In true "Do as I say, not as I do" fashion, some Republicans are threatening to sue the President for not enforcing Federal laws.

In the US, we have signing statements: These have been used by Presidents indicate pieces of legislation they don’t like. Recently, they have also been used by Presidents to state that they won’t enforce laws with which they find objection. The link does focus on GWB but he is by no means the exception. My problem is that the rightwing concern trolls had no problem with Bush issuing them and in effect saying he would not enforce Federal law.