Naked And Afraid: Detroit

I know from my survival shows on the cable TV that, humans can survive for 21 days without food but only three days without water. That ought to tell you how important water is to human life.

The city of Detroit has cut off the water supply of thousands of delinquent customers and intend to cut off thousands more. The United Nations has stepped in to call this a civil rights violation. That's the UNITED NATIONS people- the folks tell people like the formerly alive dictator Saddam Hussein that he better allow inspections of his alleged Weapons of Mass Distraction or GW Bush is going attack him.

The UN is telling an American city that they are violating human rights! Have they looked into our voting? Maybe we could have free elections here if they did?

It's still early in the day but, I bet the reichwingers are going to be pissed about UN involvement on American soil. Some of their wackier elements have been warning that UN troops will be coming for our guns- "any minute now"- for hundreds of thousands of minutes, now. I venture that they will hate this UN appraisal so much they will fucking love it!

But, forget about them. In a major American city that has already suffered enough, thousands of people are being denied the most necessary element of life, the compound that is water. Many of these people owe a few hundred dollars. It sucks not to pay your bills and people do lose cars, stereos and houses over these things but, water is a different story. It's interesting (but typical) that wealthy and corporate interests in Detroit are also behind in their water bills to the tunes of thousands of dollars but, here in America, who do we fuck with, the people with lawyers and money, or the people without? I think you know the answer.

The folks that own the Red Wings hockey stadium and the Lions football stadium. and other private enterprises, owe some $30 million collectively in water bills. They are not going to be cut off. Well, they have money and lawyers. Evidently they can pay but, they won't. That is often the criteria for shutting off someones water in most cities. "Before we slowly kill these people, lets find out if they are poor or just jerks." I'm no expert but I think most cities draw the line at cutting off water. And there are generally weather related rules about cutting off heat.

I think the Detroit water department is owed something like $118 million dollars. Maybe $100 million or so ago they could have been a bit more proactive about this. One approach might have been to include water in tax bills. Think of any apartment you may have had. The water bill was included in the rent. It's not perfect but, it beats dealing with millions of individual clients. I know poor people get behind on their taxes too.There is no perfect solution.

There is another option though. Invade Detroit. Bomb them. Bring US troops and then democracy to the Motor City. This is something Lindsey Graham and all the republican crackers want to do all over the world, all the time. They think American democracy will work in Iraq and the Middle east, bringing them into the 21st century. Well, it hasn't worked all that well in Detroit now, has it? Maybe that's why they don't try?  

Letters- we get letters!

Here's some of the... trollespondence... that we here at the Ferrerman blog get quite a bit of and do not exschpanktly trust as legitimate correspondence on blog posts, for various reasons. Most didn't make any more sense in the context of the blog posts they were in response to and I'm doing them here to clean house a little and edumacate folks on how NOT to write a Ferrerman....

"If you guys can still see your profile instead of "Topix page missing" when you click on it, but you can't post AND see the post live, from what I can gather your IP is possibly banned. Have you tried posting with your account from a different IP? What amazes me are the icons. There can be the initial assortment of icons from normal everyday people who give checks, brilliants and such but the minute the mad iconer sees it, BOOM, 3 Racy, 3 mean and 3 disagrees. It's like a button was pushed. It would be nice if Topix allowed every icon to remain rather than let the socks sign in and out 100 times to create the icon sequence they want, which drowns out any decent ones. Mods do troll with non mod trolls. Just the other day I saw Dork ask Hegel where her account was. How would anyone know Hegel had account problems? Hegel is spot on 100% right, it is personal. Topix is taken very seriously."

~Emily Nelson

""Some people will believe what they want to believe". So true. You insist I am a troll because of my IP address but I am one of your biggest fans. Dr Dirty is in southern Oregon. I swear I am not he. He's an ass. Anyway. ------- Sublime CRACKS ME UP! What an e-fucking bragger! Like you said, if you're going to try and portray being a stud, don't post your real picture. That pic of him is hideous! He lies too. he said he never trolls gray but one of his SC posts were brought to his attention. THAT shut him up. He is worth the price of admission."

~Emily Nelson

"Ha!! It didn't take me long to bait ole dipshit Mikey did it? You liked the post and said it was a "good post". Note his comeback about the pic with Ernie Banks? I told you it was him and not Sub with that crap. In all honesty I had no idea he would say it, it was just opportune and begged me to point it out to you AFTER I made a comment here yesterday about that very thing. To answer your question my name is Emily Nelson. Happy now?"

~Anonymous

"So no one can be right when they make guesses except you and kegel, huh piehole? LMAO"

~itk cubs fan

"Oh this used to happen to me all the time. They'd make those random statements to get yours and everyone else's attention then when you reply, no matter what you said, they'd twist it. The fight was on. Again, one of the reasons I just stopped Topix all together. I do remember a few posts that were directed to you about a son and also about some painting business. You're saying that was Sublime making them? I thought it was the other dichhead that stalks woman's feelings online, first in Coffee with Pie then the music threads? The IP was TX and he used to post a picture of Ernie banks a lot. Sublime must be spending way more time on Topix than I had imagined. I am unfamiliar with the Angelique back story other than the accusations I read. I assumed Aneglique was Susan and Persephone. I guess I was wrong?"

~Bex

"Ok come on, you know who I am. Did I not leave a lasting impression? I did with a few of the others. If you Topix google my name there are at least 100 different threads dedicated to me. I must have had at least 25 accounts banned because of mass reporting by the clique for the silliest nonsensical chit. Yeah, I know you get trolled, and I got trolled right along with you for laughing at the way you rip the tards to shreds. Anyway, it became abundantly clear certain posters had an in with Mods who would divulge IP addresses to said posters, meaning you could not post in anonymity. I always wondered why I could be posting in peace in a totally hidden account, having chats about the most innocuous subjects and out of the blue have either Dork, Bex or Mikey jump my ass, create a fuss and blame the fight on me. The mods were clueing these f-wads in. I am just not so sure that's quite kosher even if Topix law prevails there. What next? Give them my IP so they can find me IRL??"

~Anonymous

"sup piehole"

~itk cubs fan

"Miss me Pieholeio?"

~GUESS WHO? ROTFLMAO

"Lumping Clackamas and Portland together as one person? Now you're starting to sound like the Twin who insists all Chicago IPs (and all the ones he posts as gray) are you! I guarantee this IP is not trolling you!"

~Anonymous

"Not Angelique writes, I read it because it's funny and I enjoy your special twist on life, Topix and politics. Isn't that your intent? If not, why write it in the first place? If IP holders who click your blog means they are your trolls, does that make Deer Whisperer your troll? Signed, Dedicated reader but not your troll. JUST a reader"

~Anonymous

"Angelique770? WTF? You're wrong dude. Way wrong. I have NO IDEA how you connected the dots from her to me. (I assume she is she). If you don't mind, I'll continue to read your blog. I find it funny. Would angelique praise you? Good luck to your Cubbies this year."

~Anonymous

"Whos Joy Edge Martin piehole?"

~itk cubs fan

The Foreskins?

Did you know that, of all things, Topix has it's own patent attorney?

Yep. His nom de Topix is Sublime1 but rather than handle copyright issues for the company, he does pro bono work as the unpaid intern.... of the Troll Mod as a professional victim and the Lifestyles And Entertainment editor of various threads on Topix. In short, he trolls to be trolled for the sake of trolling.

In reality, this guy actually is a patent attorney. It must be as booooorrrrrring as it sounds because he spends an inordinate amount of time on Topix telling people about the wonderfulness of his being. He seems to be on Topix as he awaits his boss coming in and maybe asking him to check if other companies making safe, boxy cars might infringe on their own making of safe, boxy cars. Stuff like that. I understand it pays well enough but, it's kind of a dead end, boring job as far as lawyering goes. Not all lawyers can try murderers (or defend them) and tons of them eek out a living handling mundane divorces, wills and the like.  I know a lot of poor lawyers. You have to remember that, like doctors, fifty percent of them graduated at the bottom of their class.

In the news this week, the US Patent Office decided that the NFL's Washington Redskins franchise could no longer hold a parent on the "Redskins" part of their name. They ruled that "redskins" is a slur and you can't patent a slur. So, forget about it, New Jersey Niggas- that's not going to happen.

In layferrerman's terms, I understand this to mean that the Washington Redskins can continue to be known as the Redskins but anybody who wants to can profit off of that as well. This would include t-shirts, pennants- souvenirs for some lucky fans. Folks are free to take a bite out of their marketing pie without fear of legal ramifications. That's all it means. If they want a patentable name (like the Chicago Bears) they could change their name to "The Washington Foreskins" since the owner seems to be a dickhead himself and the politicians of the nation's capital would be better represented by that than they were by a slur against Native Americans.

Seems fair to me. The reichwingers are pitching a fit , blaming it on Obama and big gubmint but this was a Patent Office decision on one case, not a revocation of all capitalist rights. What irks me though is that I- a Ferrerman-  have to explain this to you all because a certain patent attorney is too busy bullying a senior citizen, cancer survivor on Topix rather than offering his legal expertise. Not one word about the ruling. What are we not paying this clown for?

There's nobody who holds the patent on assholiness. It may seem like they do but, life long ago ruled that that was to be spread around the masses. That's not a legal opinion. It's just the way it is.

This blog is in recess until the next time. Until then, the penal code will be strictly enforced.

Minority Report

I read a piece this morning about some conservative christian gathering that drew all of 300 people of that persuasion to a hotel in Washington, not counting a whole slew of reporters, to hear possible GOP presidential candidates, Rand Paul and Chris Christie. Evidently they were discussing whether they should take the approach that the country is going to hell and they should do something about that or whether they should concentrate their efforts on helping folks in need. Guns v. butter, I reckon.

I'm not sure what they concluded but, the conversation seemed to be more of the former, peppered with a bit of the latter. Not so much old time religion as more of the new-time religion that says that the country needs to concentrate more on undoing the hellfire and damnation of the Obama administration before they can get around to healing the sick and helping the poor in the name of Jesus. I coulda seen that coming a mile away.

What I didn't see coming was the decision by these good Xtian folks to replace the urinal cakes in the men's room with figurines of President Obama. Yeah. Nothing for the ladies? No Hillary Clinton pads? Why are women always afterthoughts with our Christcons?

Whattaya gonna do? Well, I'm not going to post the pic for one thing. Three hundred-some very odd people, some of them of which were peeing on the POTUS is not exactly a majority in thought or deed. We are really not into majorities in this country as the brochures might indicate. In fact, I'm going to argue that we are heavily into minorities, just not the minorities typically portrayed in the aforementioned brochures.

For example, how many Americans really- really- want to go about their daily lives with semi-automatic assault rifles slung on their bodies and a sidearm on their hip? We're talking about walking the dog, driving to work and barbequing with the Swanson's this Saturday night. How many of our nation's 310 million citizens want to conduct their everyday lives as if America were Beirut on a Tuesday?

The answer is: not that many. I really doubt if it's one percent. If my Math School skills are correct, 1% of (rounding off to 300) would be three million people. While that is a lot, it's still just one percent compared to ninety nine percent (297 million) who absolutely do not want to tote firearms as if they were handbags and cellphones.

It's fairly clear that 1% of our nations wealthiest pretty much run this country. There have been Supreme Court decisions to back this up and, they really don't bother to hide it much. If you were a billionaire Koch brother, wouldn't you want your hand on the stick stirring the governmental stew? Of course you would. As Steinbeck pointed out, we Americans see ourselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Secretly, we go along with the rich running the show because we are one lotto ticket from being amongst them. What kind of idiot would want to raise taxes on his future self?  Besides, rich people are always murdering each other in delightfully wicked ways that are highly entertaining on television and film.

We also are constantly being told that we are a Christian nation even though we aren't. There are lots of Christians in this country, for sure, but, the founders did not set this place up to be a theocracy despite what you might hear these days. In fact, they were against that. Freedom of religion is also freedom from religion. That's really how that works. Of course, if you are of a certain religion you think that yours is the one and only and that yours should be the one running the show. Hey- if you don't, they will. And you know how they are....

So, again, with religion we have a minority of folks believing they are the majority. They want to do one hundred  percent of our thinking for us. If you put any of these things to a vote, the majority would vote them down. We are not a nation of gun-toting Xtian millionaires. You can stop printing those brochures right now. These minorities may be pissed off but we are not to be pissed on.

The GOP is NUTS!

I read the other days that House republicans are confident that they have the votes to impeach President Obama. To paraphrase Joe Biden: "Big fucking deal." It's the political equivalent of saying: "I'll sue you!". You still have to be able to go to court, present a viable case and win. Impeachment happens in the senate and it's not supposed to be taken lightly, like when adulterous congressmen were aghast about Bill Clinton getting a presidential blow job. If they were of the same party, Newt Gingrich would have been asking for Monica's phone number instead of impeaching Bill. And impeachment is not like in the war movies where the lieutenant threatens the private with a courts martial. That too is a process rather than a verdict. None mean that you can just take your opponent outside and shoot them.

Of course, the republicans started calling for Obama's impeachment pretty much from the moment he won, a couple of months before he even took the oath of office. Six years later, many still don't comprehend what impeachment means. They likely never will.  We're talking about a party where 1/3 of the republicans in Louisiana blamed President Obama for the poor response to hurricane Katrina. The hurricane, you may recall, happened in 2005, three years before Obama became President.

Well, no matter. Never mind, for example, that 97% of scientists know that global warming is a threat to the entire planet, if you don't believe that based on your religious and/or political beliefs, you are as *right* as they are. That's politics today. It's a belief system that suspends all logical belief for some people. Rick Perry can say he's not a scientist (duh) but he can debunk climate change or homosexuality based on gut feelings. Well, there you go. Go play in traffic. If you believe you won't get run over, surely you won't.

I would like to believe that the DNC was behind this video but I know that it was from the GOP and has the Reince Preibus seal of approval. I believe it is nutty though!

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-rnc-goes-squirrely-direction

The GOP is after your nuts because they don't have enough.

What A Fool Believes....

This photo is making the rounds on Facebook as *proof* that most or all of the shootings and bombings that happen here in America are staged. Well, of course they are! Anyone who doesn't think so can just walk off the edge of the earth.

Evidently, dozens of people on the internet believe the shootings are staged by the government, using crisis actors who portray the victims, grieving family members and- I guess- the 315 million gullible citizens who read, see and hear about these things, as well.

Now, why would the government do this? These dozens of fucking idiots believe that Sandy Hook and the 74 school shootings since Sandy Hook, have all been perpetrated by the government to create an excuse to confiscate our guns. That's something they haven't gotten around to doing in any way, shape or form. Staging 75 murderous rampages must take up a lot of time! Republicans in particular are constantly complaining that government (which they are part of) can't do anything right. So, how is it that government can pull off all these horrible shootings and fooling all but several dozen people in this country and entire rest of the world into thinking this is one dangerous country full of gun-crazed psychos, yet they can'f win one Academy Award in the process?

Look at the young woman in the meme. She could be triplet step-sisters! No blondes or redheads available to portray hysterical bystanders? No African Americans? Chinese? Where's the diversity of perversity? That's no government production, folks.

Now, I say there are "dozens of assholes". Maybe that's just what the gubmint wants you to believe. There might be hundreds. It just seems like a stretch for the government to do this to do nothing about guns, doesn't it?

Now, if the NRA was hiring people to kill kids at schools and people at theaters and work places, that would make sense! THAT sells guns! THAT is capitalism in action! Serious action!

Ya know, I think I saw that girl at a gun show, now that I think about it. Which one? All of them....

Stop and smell the forums

I've gotten a different perspective on Topix since the Troll Mod threw up it's hands in defeat and banned me. Topix hasn't changed but it's interesting to just be a reader now with no option of replying and, thus, effecting the dialogue. Or, as I am legally obligated to ask, is it affecting?

It's definitely not as interactive as it was about ten days or so ago! That's not bad. Nor is the timing bad. I think the days of Topix as we've known it are numbered. In my recent post here about net neutrality I wanted to point out that- as I see it- Topix would probably be one of those sites that the service providers sloooooooow down until Topix would pony up some cash. They probably don't want to do that and I doubt that even the most ardent of trolls would pay to post on Topix. So, the future doesn't look good even if the powers that be don't choose to fuck up the internet.

I hear that the new, improved Topix requires registration and (maybe) has mods that aren't trolls, and probably isn't troll friendly to poster's either. The new one seems to be making an effort to be more Facebook-like (even linking registration to FB) with cute cat videos and politics. I'll stay with Facebook for that stuff. Topix has already proved themselves to be careless in their hiring of mods, perhaps having taken their cue from old westerns where the townsfolk thought it wise to let the outlaws run the town so as to give themselves the notion that it was at least their idea.

Looking at the threads, you'd think I was still posting. It's going to be that way for a few months. Judging by the comments of the usual suspects, you might think I was still there. Well, I'm not. It's the same shit as it's always been- seeing Ferrerman everywhere they want to see me, everywhere there is someone posting gray. You know how it works: Every Illinois poster has to be Ferrerman and every other gray has to be too because, Ferrerman would use a proxy! Those accusations got old years ago and it looks like they will continue to grow older.

Today, for example, I was thumbing through Topix There was the usual fighting and taunting. And I saw where Sublime (who considers yours truly his arch-rival in life) was motoring to a BBQ when they happened upon an accident. Sub's posting the play by play at the time, on his phone.In the midst of all this, a long time troll starts going on about Bill and Hillary Clinton. They weren't at the accident. Whether it was a segue or a non-sequitur, it was stupid! But, evidently Sub's wife (a Certified Nursing Assistant- CNA) sprung into action when they saw the body, organs hanging out, covered by a blanket(?!?) and she began....performing CPR....  None of that shit makes sense to me. Well, it never did. It's just more manufactured Topix drama. There probably was a wreck. We know there is a Bill and a Hillary Clinton. But, I'm not getting where a blood-covered wife and traumatized children continue on to a barbeque after saving dude's life. Just another day in the Topix life for some....Forget it Ferrer....it's Topixtown....