Nom de plume: Rivrdog

PAC-12 WTF

The USC Trojan football team, still reeling from severe sanctions imposed by the NCAA years ago, hired a journeyman Head Coach, Lane Kiffin, but he didn't turn out to be effective for the team. Half-way through the season, USC fired Kiffin, and hired Ed Ogeron to finish the season. Ogeron did a brilliant job, finishing the season 6-2, getting the boys to fight for their school, and they finished the season with their heads high.

The USC AD then had to find a full-time coach. NFL Denver's offensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio was mentioned, but he's happy as second banana at the Broncos. It seemed certain that Ogeron would get the offer, but nooo...

USC just hired Steve Sarkisian from the Washington Huskies. Who? Sarkisian, the fired Lane Kiffin's former second banana who went to Seattle and was 34-29 there, not exactly a resume-building record. Sarkisian lost three big games this year, the Huskies finishing out of the money for any PAC-12 glory.

If Washington has a lick of sense left, they offer Ed Ogeron the Head Coach job. If that happens, I can't wait to watch the Huskies roll up the Trojans...

Scamazon dot com? REVISED

NOTE: This blog-post has been revised. I had originally included a factual error, the result of sloppy research, in the previous version.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

If any of my two or three regular readers live in Seattle, you may object to this post, because it pans one of your local self-made men, Jeff Bezos, and his firm, Amazon dot com.

Back story: I found the perfect Xmas present for one of my daughters. It is a JIS 9000, waterproof and rubber armored "boom-box". Note that the definition of such has changed in the last 30 years. Boomboxes used to weigh 20#+, and take up the entire back seat of your Honda Civic. These were also known as "ghetto blasters". This one I just bought (well, I THINK I've bought it, it's not here yet) Is tiny by blaster standards,  but it's what the yutes go for now. Good for them, they're keeping their music more personal.

But I digress.

So, I buy this item online, and immediately start getting bombarded with emails by Amazon. First email was one asking if I wanted to keep shopping. Deleted. Then, one stating that they had received my order. Saved it. Then another exclaiming that they were processing the order. Deleted, then one stating it had been shipped. Saved it. Then several more stating it had been shipped. Trashbin.

Then a curious phenomenon: I start getting phone calls from something called QRI. They called for two days, maybe 8 to 10 calls. I never answered any of them and they never left a message, but I did get curious: after research, it seems that they are associated with Amazon! Will wonders never cease? My research said they would remove me from their robocall stack, dial their # back and hit a two. Did that and the calls ceased, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. a scammy taste.

Then, this ayem, I get up and look at the email. Some outfit I never heard of, "TechGiant", wants me to evaluate my purchase. Strange, since I had ordered it as a present and wrapped and the purchase had not involved "TechGiant".

There are smoke and mirrors here. Why? Has Amazon gotten too big too fast? Why doesn't their site tell you up front who you are actually purchasing from? EBay does that, so why can't Bezos? Why doesn't TechGiant show up in searches? There is just no information out there on them. Amazon DOES have a review system, but there is none for TechGiant. If I had answered that email and reviewed my purchase, where would the review have gone? This reminds me of the gamblers who used to ride the buses in DeeCee where I grew up, doing their Shell Game for nickels and dimes...

Now, add this experience to another difficulty I just had with the Amazon about my Kindle account, and well, I have lost faith in this company to do business in a fair, trustworthy and equitable manner.

World: Beware of Scamazon dot com

Editorial oversight at Newsmax

...seems to be lacking.

Compare the teaser headline in their morning email:

"NSA Shares Data Site With Polygamists"

with the sub-headline in their morning table of contents:

"2. NSA's Data Center Site Is Home to Polygamist Sect"

Okay, fans of the King's h'English, what seems to be the problem here? Newsmax obviously doesn't have a headline writer who passed English Comp 101, that's the problem. The problem is the use of the word, "site", which means two different things in English of present usage.

First, the word means "location", and Newsmax might have intended it to mean that.

However, the second meaning, and the predominant one if we are talking about data storage, means, "networked filing system", as in Internet Site. "NSA Site" could mean either, but since their editors have been bombarding us with stories about NSA thievery of digital intellectual property, the word should mean the NSA's Network. That being the one that Mr. Snowden hacked.

This leads to the suggestion in the headline that the NSA and the Mormon polygamous sect mentioned are partners in this privacy outrage.

Fairly impossible, that. Now, if some radical Islamists owned property nearby, I could accept the dual meanings of the word "site", based on the leadership of our Nation at this point in time. Not Mormons, though.

Coincidences...

...or not.

Read this blog. It's a few years old, but it clearly shows the circle of folks that President Obama runs within, and it shows the associations of that circle of folks to be not healthy for the national interests of the USA.

Make the final connection of Obama > Evil if you will, I'm not suggesting that such a connection is guaranteed to be valid, because there actually IS a Snowball's Chance in Hell that Obama might not follow all the evil guidance shown in this collection of malfeasance of his teachers, mentors, spirtual guides, business associates, etc.

We ARE generally known positively or negatively by the circle of folks we move within, though. That's our societal custom.

Obama's circle appears to have the following entrance requirements: you must be either left-radical, Islamist-radical or criminally corrupt to belong to that circle, and in some cases, all three negative qualities are evident.

You be the Judge. Yes, in this Nation, we may still Judge our President. Maybe not for much longer, but for now, we can.

Sunday scummynews

New category, subset of 4th Estate Adversary. Not quite adversarial, but in the scum category anyway. makes the news media need thorough cleaning.

Item: Fox News in the 10am PDT block: Snowden Affair. Seems Putin enabled Snowden to leave Hong Kong (and the US arrest warrant) in the rear-view mirror. Landed in Moscow on a direct Aeroflot flight, which he was allowed to board without a Russian Visa (very unusual, says Fox, but how would they know?). Now headed for (maybe in the air already) Ecuador, his request for political asylum there having preceded him (courtesy of Putin, perhaps?).

Analysis: The US of A gets hoist on their own petard, again. By mounting up the Big Gummint Posse and yelling "Get a Rope" before we really knew what was behind Snowden's act, or what the NSA was up to, we have encouraged him to jump into the arms of various ne'er-do-wells like Julian Assange and Vladimir Putin. Only puzzle left here is why the Chinese didn't get to him first. maybe because they've already penetrated the NSA, and already have everything he had to offer?

Prediction: There ain't no mo' tail left to twist on the paper tiger that was the USA, once. If it's possible, it's becoming evident that Obama has FUBAR'd our foreign policy worse than our domestic policy.

#%#%#%#%#%#%

Item: Again, Fox News in the 10am PDT block: Veteran's affairs: Some talking head claiming that veterans with a certain level of PTSD (which all returning vets are now encouraged to claim) are being put on zombie-fying psychotropic drugs, which Fox's talking head said are highly addictive and the vets are unlikely to ever be able to get off of them. How does making zombies out of veterans improve on ignoring PTSD entirely, the policy for the past few wars? Actually, it is worse. With the psychotropics, the VA can claim that these vets are forever damaged goods. That denies them the Second Amendment rights, among other things. How convenient, as I've stated before: disarm the force most likely to be effective against a tyrannical government in a Second Amendment-enabled removeal of that tyranny.

Analysis: This is obvious: we have met the Gulag, and it is us. We are there. Stalin and Beria taught our Government well, and they learned the lesson well.

Prediction: At some point, the veterans in the Gulag will be joined by others who demonstrate that they are ready and capable of unseating the tyrannical government. I have just warned myself, then.