¿Quién “ganó” las elecciones del 20D en España?

Here's another Spanish language article I wrote on Medium.com. This one follows the political discussion and analysis from my previous Spanish articles on Medium.com, and considering the result of the Spanish election on December 20th, 2015, I've asked the question, "Who "won" the elections?" and if 72% of the people didn't choose you, "Did you win?" Sorry, it's once again, only available in Spanish as it's Spain focused, but hopefully the translators will give you an idea. I hope y'all enjoy my pondering. You can click below or here.

¿Quién "ganó" las elecciones del 20D en España?

El 20 de diciembre se celebraron unas elecciones nacionales en España. Como suele ocurrir cuando hay elecciones, salen los partidos a celebrar que "ganaron", pero, ¿se "ganan" unas elecciones? "El único ganador o perdedor en la política es el pueblo" - F. Thomas Ferdinandson.

Siguiendo la discusión política y el análisis de mis artículos previos en Medium.com y considerando el resultado de las elecciones del 20 de diciembre en España, me he preguntado, "¿Quién "ganó" las elecciones?" y si 72% de las personas no te escogieron a ti, "¿Has ganado?" Espero que les guste mi pensamiento en "voz alta".  Para verlo, pueden hacer clic en el bloque o aquí.

#‎Elecciones2015‬ ‪#‎20D‬ ‪#‎PP‬ ‪#‎PSOE‬ ‪#‎Podemos‬ ‪#‎Ciudadanos‬ ‪#‎MarianoRajoy‬ ‪#‎PedroSanchez‬ ‪#‎PabloIglesias‬ ‪#‎AlbertRivera‬

Pre-owned babies for sale

Pro life activists have been marching once again in their annual round of protest against Roe vs. Wade and those who believe women should have a choice as to what to do with their own bodies. This time, the mood has been quite different though as Mr. Little Tree has been directly offering moral support in the form of "we will prevail" speeches and what not. With judge hALITOsis about to give America his own form of tooth decaying freshness, as his approval seems imminent, the pro lifers have been patting each other on the back over their grand victory in favor of what they now call the pre-born.

Seeing as that seems to be their new slogan, "Justice for all – Born and Pre-born," utilizing the whole pre-owned, pre-played concept, I've decided here to propose a new slogan for the Pro-choice movement to counteract this "bible toting" (and unfortunately not bible reading) gang of overzealous religious freaks led by their newborn prophet who's as Christian as Hitler was Jewish. It's "To protect the pre-born, you must buy pre-owned." With this new slogan goes a new proposition, sort of a middle ground between both camps. It’s very simple.

The pro-choicers can continue to go to their abortion clinic, but instead of having an abortion, they will inscribe in a pro-life, pre-owned baby list. This matches their pre-born baby automatically with a pro-life member, who will in turn pay for and care for the pre-born baby in question, once he or she becomes a pre-owned one, as well as a fee for the arduous task of carrying the pre-born life to term (i.e. the $10,390 adoption credit per child from your tax form plus all birth and term year costs plus an additional 40% of that for the emotional distress). This would compensate pro-choice advocates for their sacrifice, and satiate the pro-life camp's desire for pre-born babies to become pre-owned.

In considering this resolution to the problem, I forgot to consider the amount of pre-owned children that are still waiting for an owner in the U.S. and around the world. Well, all pro-life advocates must now take responsibility and put their money where their march is in this as well, by entering a matching lottery system that will match an advocate with an orphaned or homeless child ending any and all need for orphanages and homeless shelters for children. This would not only save the children, but save the nation as well, transferring the millions of dollars currently spent on this issue to a more important issue: protecting the burning bush and the incredibly "pro-life" and "Christian" message of death around the world. Their post plan slogan: "Fuck with our oil, we'll pre-kick your ass."

Final Note: If you truly want to be pro-life, be anti-war, anti-violence of any kind, anti-abuse, anti-pre-emptive strikes, etc. etc. If you truly want to stop abortion, then promote safe sex, give your kids depo-provera injections, or condoms. Educate the masses and abortions will only be necessary under circumstances such as rape and what not. Love the born more than the unborn, and more will wish to bring the children into the world instead of fearing it. Abortion should be in the hands of educated men and women, as an educated and legal decision, not as a backwoods, medieval, dangerous proposition bred of ignorance and fear. This is why it became legal, and things haven't changed any since then.

In summary, a well placed condom can save a life, so, pro-lifers, how 'bout giving them out at your next rally? :)

The "third world" is right at home

In any land of need, the suffering masses will do anything to survive. We've seen the effects of this in many "third world" countries as they grow and develop their societies under dismal conditions and lawlessness. Constant civil wars, looting, "freedom" fighters and what not are the daily bread of many of these nations. Within the supposed first world nation of the United States of America, it would be inconceivable to think that such violence, overall lawlessness, and revolt could occur since the economic power of the nation provides for the needy people within it, right? Well, the state of Louisiana has been the land of need for a long time. Almost half the population of the state lived in poverty and the high school drop out rate was (some officials estimate) as high as 90 percent (NOTE: The high school drop out rate statistics seem to vary greatly but all remain above the unacceptable 50% level. Thanks to Russ for this clarification.). The state answer to the latter was to cut millions from the education budget. So much for Bush's no child left behind initiative. With between 6 to 8 billion dollars a month being spent in Iraq (218 billion dollars to date and more than in Vietnam), where is the aid of the needy at home? Hurricane Katrina has dealt a deadly blow to an already "third world" state and to the entire U.S. Gulf Coast sending it into Somalia, Rwanda, or Haiti type levels, yet the President was on vacation reenacting his September 11th, 2001 performance by reacting slowly to the news, and Congress approved a measly 10.5 billion for a devastated area the size of Great Britain.

Over 400,000 people along that coast were forced to leave their homes. New Orleans continues to be under 8 feet (2.43 meters) of water and the situation is not expected to improve for at least another couple of weeks (UPDATE 9-2-05: Army said it could take 36 to 80 days to drain New Orleans). Coastal towns like Biloxi, Mississippi had 90 percent of its buildings blown to bits. There is no drinking water, there is no power, and food is running out. In New Orleans , countless dead line the street or float through its waters. Tens of thousands of people were and continue to be stranded with no means of evacuating. The war of need has begun.

The U.S. and its media cohorts like National Geographic and others, have long portrayed "third world" countries like lawless war zones in extreme poverty, to market its powerful image over that of the rest of the world. We've all seen them in the news and National Geographic documentaries: the gun toting owners of shops defending themselves from looters, warring groups shooting at each other in the streets, people stealing from everyone and everything including medical supplies from hospitals and food from anywhere. This is New Orleans today. Armed with pipes and axes, a group stripped two hospitals clean, leaving many of the sick and dying without vital supplies to survive. Violence is rampant with no order in sight despite the National Guard troops that have entered the city. Mobs rule, the gangs rule, violence rules, death is everywhere. It's a war zone.

Desperately obvious is the fact that more help is needed...and pronto. The number of troops is definitely not nearly enough to bring order to Iraq...ahem, I mean New Orleans (see a pattern here? Ed.). The Salvation Army has been aiding with food and supplies, which is a step forward, but the amounts have been limited and could cause the situation to deteriorate at each cantina should these run out. A more realistic, and particularly respectful, monetary figure should be approved by the U.S. Congress.

In the end, when the waters have receded, the violence subsided, and order been brought back to the coast, the developing nation or "third world" state of Louisiana will not only require a gargantuan, Iraq-like effort and attention to resuscitate its devastated cities and neighboring regions, but a particular attention to home that has been missing from the U.S. Government for a long time. While the nation focused its attention on Iraq's infrastructure and effort, Louisiana had become the "third world" even before Katrina. Mississippi wasn't far behind.

In a land of need, the desperate will do anything and all is justifiable, but why in the U.S. is there a land of need?

bNowhere patents the bathroom process

Today, bNowhere has received a number of patents for the bathroom process. This includes patents for the method of urinating both standing and sitting at both urinal and toilet, the process of defecating in a toilet and urinal and in multiple positions, plus, the same process specified within the constraint of clothing, bedding and other situations. Starting immediately, everyone found doing such acts must pay bNowhere a licensing fee.

Sounds completely idiotic doesn't it? Well, something similar has been happening in the computers and software industry for the past 20 years, and is an issue that continues to rear its ugly head every number of months at different scales. The most recent example is Creative Technologies, makers of the Zen mp3 player and number 2 competitor in the portable mp3 player market. That specific market is presently dominated and by no small measure by the ubiquitous Apple iPod in all its forms. Apple holds between 75 and 85 percent of the mp3 player market depending on who you ask, and Creative is one of many fighting for the rest of the market and a bite of the Apple pie. In fact, Creative's Chairman and CEO, Sim Wong Ho has been adamantly vocal about his company's "war" against the iPod since November of 2004.

Despite his claims and efforts, Apple sold over 6 million iPods in the last quarter, an over 600 percent improvement over last year, and Creative can barely sell those numbers in a year. Of course, desperate times call for desperate measures, and with the help of the government many companies have attained the means to fight the "war" with weapons that are as ridiculous as the bathroom example above. Creative's particular weapon is the recently acquired U.S. Patent 6,928,433 referred to as the "Zen Patent". This patent describes how files on a digital music player are organized and categorized hierarchically. In other words, the patent is the equivalent of inventing "alphabetical order" since it gives Creative a 20 year, government sponsored monopoly on hierarchical organizing of files in an mp3 player by song, artist, genre, etc. Anyone who's used an mp3 player, be it Apple's iPod, the Rio or any other brand than creative will logically find this browsing method familiar. Then again I should say that anyone who's ever classified music should find this familiar which makes all of this laughable and though normally considered unpatentable, here it exists for all the world to pay Creative for the right to organize the files in their player in the same way as their home CD collection.

Another controversial example in recent years was Amazon's 1-click® patent. On September 28, 1999 the U.S. Patent Office granted Patent Number 5,960,411 for a "Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network". In simple terms, Amazon patented the process of shopping used by most websites. The system receives a click, and processes an order for an item based on personal data previously stored on file that includes credit card and shipping address. Amazon defended its "innovation" saying that no one had thought of 1-click® shopping, and yet reducing clicks has been at the top of every webmaster's list since the beginning of the World Wide Web. The storing of personal information and using it to present data isn't anything novel either and is ridiculously obvious. It is the same as walking into a store, grabbing some stuff and telling the clerk as you leave, "Put it on my tab, Earl!"

Certain things can't and shouldn't be patented, yet the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office is awarding patents to everything and anything on computers and software. Their cluelessness and overall ignorance when it comes to online issues has resulted in a new form of defeating the competition, patenting their obvious processes.

Don't Patent the Mousetrap, Patent the Process!!!

Now you can patent the "Method and system for placing a mouse in a trap" and upon receiving said patent, all mousetrap manufacturers will be in violation of your patent and therefore subject to an injunction unless a licensing agreement is reached. It's exactly what Amazon achieved when it was awarded an injunction to Barnes and Noble's online store for their Express Lane system, and right before the critical holiday season. It was eventually resolved with a second, confirmation click, but it achieved the purpose of defeating Barnes and Noble in the online space at a very critical time. Is this the ethical way to compete? Should this be allowed? This has far reaching effects upon the economy, businesses, innovation, etc. and none of them pretty.

It used to be that to compete all you had to do was build a better mousetrap. Well, no more, now you don't have to build anything, just own the patent to the idea. It is a sad day for business, a sad day indeed.

Final Note: an untold number of patents were unknowingly violated in the writing of this article. ;)

Lindsay Lohan's Breasts Offend Children?

This has got to be the beginning of the end for "American" society. The new Herbie movie, the fourth sequel to the classic 1968 film, The Love Bug about a Volkswagen Beetle car that is "alive", features Lindsay Lohan, the well bodied teen actress who has become a sort of breast icon for millions of teen fans as well as a number of more adult followers. In a yet to be understood social twist, Disney technicians were forced to digitally reduce her breasts throughout the film as their size was deemed "offensive" for a film geared towards children.

Now, this has got to be the most mind-boggling piece of news I've read in years. How can breasts, something you suck as a child, be offensive to children? Could it be more likely that it offends the adults that feel tempted by Lohan's natural beauty or those women that feel envy towards her biologically endowed demeanor? Breasts are breasts, nothing more, nothing less. It is something that women have, biologically built into their bodies. It is something that serves the singular purpose of providing nourishment to a newborn child. Unless the movie's storyline or directing features Lohan's breasts in depraved sexual acts with other children, I don't understand the offense. Do her breasts fire missiles like those of the classic japanese cartoons, which no parent complained about?

It is important here to note, who is the one being "offended". It isn't children. Children couldn't care less. In fact, young girls are often uncomfortable with their new endowments, and in fact, find them uncomfortable when they are large particularly if they're active in sports or in outdoor activities. Male children have more of a curiosity about them than the depraved sexual interest adults are quick to assign to them. If "Americans" were wondering why the rest of the world mocks them and thinks of them as ignorant, culture-less children, well, here's yet another perfect example. This is the result of "America's" obsession with sexuality, it has depraved their judgment of any sense of coherence.

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On the one hand, we sexualize children, and on the other we complain about the sexualization. It has become such an obsession, this infantile world, that society in general has become disconnected with the true reality of growing up. A child is as capable as is his/her potential, and it is adults who remove the so called "innocence" by assigning value and importance to things that are both natural and unimportant to the child. It is adults who are depraved. If you are offended by Lindsay Lohan's beautiful, god given form, and think it is wrong and sexually offensive that her breasts should naturally bounce when she runs, then it is you who are the depraved, sick bastard who is obsessively sexualizing something that has nothing to do with sexuality.

Sadder still is that Disney would follow suit with the digital reduction and cover up, by reducing her breasts by two sizes and raising the necklines on her clothes. Disney, the company that puts out children's films that explore such lovely children's topics as revenge, violence, lust, obsessive desire, envy, etc. etc. If you're wondering which films I'm talking about, then here's a short list: The Lion King, The Humpback of Notre Dame, Snow White, Mulan, etc. etc. It is here that a perfect example of the social issues that plague modern society surface when it comes to sexuality. It is ok to kill, maim, dismember (as in Star Wars films), and commit devious violent acts with dubious morals and consequences, but don't ever dare to show a breast, or anything to do with our biology, lest it be the greatest offense to society and the fall of our high moral structure. Food for thought? I certainly hope so.

In the end, Linday Lohan no longer has those "offending" breasts, since she has become too anorexic recently to have any breasts. Perhaps that's why Disney is reducing them, to better reflect the current Lindsay and maintain the actress recognition level with audiences. As Jon Lovitz would say, "Yeah! That's It!"

Where is "America" now? They're on Drugs!

In the news today, I read how 130 million Americans are on medically prescribed medication and that lovely little number made the U.S., the most medicated country on the planet. Though in many ways that might seem funny, and I'm sure many a comedian could really get a lot of mileage out of it, it certainly makes one think about where society, culture, and the economy may be going today and where we'll end up in the future.

For a while, the world was depressed and on Prozac. Once that took care of eliminating emotions, it led to the problem of a lack of arousal and most of all, in men, a lack of erections. Erections became the next big thing, with Viagra taking a "hard" look at the problem and solving it. But with all the attention on getting it up, people were too distracted for anything else, so now it's Ritalin that's focusing everyone's attention. Could it be that society might end up where you can't live or breathe without a pharmaceutical? Could we be close to George Lucas' view of the future from THX 1138 where everyone was taking pharmaceuticals and sedated by law?

Many people on the planet think the U.S. is many things, but this statistic shows that it's not religious zealotry, ignorance, or an inferior education...They're on Drugs!!! Seriously, this is a problem that if not addressed, will have profound implications at every level of the social structure. There are implications to this that go beyond our understanding of biology and even genetics. How could living on pharmaceuticals affect the biology or genetic structure of a person and could that change affect that person's children and so forth? I'm not a biologist but I certainly know this can't be good for society and its future at that level.

A sedated society is a calm society. If everyone's on drugs, where will production go? If you're sedated, then where will your creativity go? Where will the industrialist get his energy, his drive? Look at children. The way that society has medicated children to where they are calm and obedient to an extreme affects the decisions and careers they take. A child whose curiosity and creativity has been hampered or even destroyed by Ritalin and its excuse for a disease, ADD/ADHD will grow up to be someone that makes or creates nothing.

American inventiveness and leadership will disappear should this trend continue. Where will Sony get its inventions to miniaturize and perfect? From China? From India? Comedians will disappear from American entertainment because the class clown will be doped up on Ritalin all his life and therefore a sedated robot that does what the parents, teachers, boss, government says he must do at all times for the rest of his life. No clown equals no comedian.

The educational system in the U.S. is going down the drain with every child left behind, considered an enemy of the state, and not allowed to have a single creative thought lest be labeled with ADD/ADHD and be sedated with Ritalin. The robot cannot compete with the free and analytical mind of the Indian programmer who is, already, employed by all the U.S. corporations.

Where will the jobs of the future be for Americans? I can tell you right now that at this pace and at this rate, they will have no place in Peter Drucker's "knowledge economy". I sure need my lawn mowed and my house cleaned, though. There's a thought. You want to see a decadent empire? Look at the U.S. It was once the pinnacle of freedom and knowledge and invention, where everyone in the world wanted to be, where every scientist wanted to go and explore their ideas and creations. Now, it's on drugs, and with the internet, the Indian programmer has a better life at home inventing the future and creating his empire, enriching himself until he controls the world.

Let's get off the drugs people and back to creating the world.