The Peaceful Gnome

I think the folks at Wikileaks are true hero's.  Please read the about page on Wikileaks.org to find out what they are really all about.  Briefly they are about freedom of information, about transparency and honest in governments and corporations.  All of the baloney being tossed about by the US government about the "risks" presented by the leaks is just that, baloney.  What is at risk is the ability of GOVCO (Governments combined with Huge Multinational Corporations) to work with thuggish totalitarian dictators around the world for their mutual enrichment at the expense of honest hard working common people everywhere.  After all, if the people knew what their supposed "leaders" were doing they would not stand for it and the corrupt system would collapse.  I sure hope Wikileaks can survive long term, more openness in government is always "A Good Thing®"  :-) http://wikileaks.org/media/about.html BBC story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world...

So often I am grouchy and use this space to complain and whine... Sorry about that but what did ya expect from an Angry Gnome anyway! ;-P. This morning though I'd like to say something nice. Shocking right? For the last couple of weeks I've been riding our local bus to the BART station. I resisted the idea because "I hate buses.". Well I guess that was just due to having bad experiences with San Francisco Muni drivers. Muni drivers seem to take pleasure in making your trip as miserable as possible. They especially enjoy slamming the doors in your face after you've run the block to catch the bus. Where's the "something nice" you ask? It's right here. Our little local bus service, called Wheels, is the exact opposite of Muni. The drivers are considerate, friendly and very helpful. I've seen them wait for people hurrying to catch the bus, even saw a driver get out of the bus to holler at a pedestrian he recognized as a regular rider to see if s...

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

You may recall last month when I wrote about someone calling security at our apartment when we were playing dice with mom. Well it seems it happened again and I slept through it! Lora just informed me they came Saturday night after I went to bed. The security drone said someone complained that it sounded like we were moving furniture. Ah, now we are SURE who is calling! Only a downstairs neighbor could say that. It IS the inconsiderate creep with the little yapping dog! The one that barks for hours on end morning noon and night. Now, I know there was no major noise in our apartment Saturday night. So they are being jerks and expecting US to be totally silent when they want quiet while not being willing to talk to us about it and also not caring if their annoying dog keeps us up all night! All right then, no more Mr. Nice Guy. We will now complain each and every time that dog barks for more than an hour. Plus I will no longer be moving quietly when I get up at 4AM for work. I may just d...

Oh, how embarrassing for our Intel guys. The "Taliban leader" they've been negotiating with for months is not even a member of the Taliban and he just ran off with the cash. Oh my, just goes to show they really don't have a clue in this whole "war on terror" scam. So when they say they have need for new security measures (read "you need to submit to more violations of your God given rights) keep in mind these are the same folks who gave us the invisible weapons of mass destruction and negotiated with fake Taliban leaders... Think about it. NYTimes story: http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=69168282A4FE48130E060A812AB91A57... Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

devich.org it was fun... Many years ago I got the "devich.org" and had a web site and a sort of blog in the days before blogs were really very common. I kept it out of inertia since then. But the email service larry@devich.org and lora@devich.org and such are not very reliable. Every few months it goes out or like it's doing recently, bouncing emails or eating emails without even the courtesy of a bounce. So, in the very near future this email will cease to function at all as I'm going to shut down my unused domain and the email service that goes along with it. In the future, indeed starting today if you will, please send all emails you want me to get to ldevich@yahoo.com Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Next May I will take my last ride on an airplane :-(  I will ride even though I know it's wrong to cave in to the vile low life scum who think they can take away our rights in the name of "security" or "safety" because I said I'd go and I want to be with my family in Maui.  But it is the last time I will do it.  From now on, no matter what the event or the opportunity I will not fly.  I hope the airlines and the US Government both go bankrupt. Here is my wardrobe for this last flight, if I have the nerve :-) That, and a kilt... with nothing under it :-) Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Very odd, I sent a few snarky anti-TSA posts out this morning then my email went down all day long. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Bite me geTSApo! Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

So, I don't know what's with this but today it seems that everywhere I look there is a story about the vile Ge TSA po and what to do about them. Here's one from a Lutheran web site of all places: Monday, November 15, 2010 Human Dignity Update (Porno-Scanners and Felon-style Gropping) Enough already. Awhile back I encouraged the Church to rethink her passive acceptance of the State's insistence that we give up traditional modesty and walk through machines that take naked pictures of ourselves, our wives, and our children. Things have only gotten worse since that posting. Now, those who refuse to go through the pornoscanner (which also uses ionizing radiation - the sort that poses an accumulating health risk), will be subject to an "enhanced" pat down. Which is to say, will be treated as felons getting a prison transport with breasts and crotch touched by a State functionary. Read the rest here: http://gottesdienstonline.blogspot.com/201...

Well, I suppose I'm already packed for my trip at least! Yes, I'm pretty sure I'll be going and I'll be traveling minimalist style, taking pretty much nothing at all with me to Maui and leaving whatever I use there behind on the island when I leave. I'm ready to take the next step here at home toward my secession from American Consumer Society as well. I went through my room a few months ago and stripped away a lot of "stuff." There is still way more "stuff" in here than I use though, so I'm going to go through it again. And again. And again. My goal is to eventually disconnect from America altogether, to go off grid, to live in a tiny house somewhere with a few books and some paper and pens to write with :-) Even this computer and my phone are annoying to me, though while I have them I will use them. Minimalists don't contribute much to the consumer economy since they don't buy much. In fact I think that minimalist living is a sor...

I was just going to shut down my computer and nap for an hour before I have to get up for work and opened my browser, wanting to see my last post, when I saw this article on Fox, really, I read it only after my nightmare! Pilots Dismayed at Airport Scanners, Pat-Downs Published November 16, 2010 CHICAGO -- Airport security stops one airline pilot because he's carrying a butter knife. Elsewhere, crews opt for pat-down searches because they fear low-level radiation from body scanners could be harmful. And in San Diego, one traveler is told he can't fly at all when he likens an intrusive body search to sexual harassment. Annoyance at U.S. security hassles has been on the rise among airline crews and passengers for years, but the widespread use of full-body image detectors this year and the simultaneous introduction of more intrusive pat-downs seems to have ramped up the frustration. As passengers have simmered over being forced to choose scans by full-body image...

I have to decide, really soon , if I can actually go to Hawaii next May with my family.  I am writing this at 2:30 AM because I just woke from a nightmare, an actual nightmare about going to Hawaii.  There was no fear of natural disasters or plane crashes or terrorists or anything like that.  I just had a nightmare about going through the Ge TSA po Manned airport checkpoints.  I won't go into the details of the nightmare but it included being arrested and making a huge scene. I have to decide if I'm willing to give up my rights as an American,no as a human being , in order to go to Hawaii with my family.  After this dream I'm not so certain that I can pull off the quiet sheep-shuffle through the Ge TSA po checkpoint  that is required in order to travel to some states, like Hawaii, in today's Soviet Americca.  Right now I'm still thinking I can manage it.  I'll take nothing with me.  I'll buy clothes there maybe, it's only a week...

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sometimes I'm glad I get to work at the crack of dawn :-) Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

My evil little sister posted this to Facebook... Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

This from Free Range Kids is pretty cool. The “Worst Place on Earth” To Lose Track of a Baby? Posted on November 13, 2010 by lskenazy Readers — This is a non-story about a mom who got her baby’s stroller onto the D.C. metro but then the doors closed before she could get on. Ritual infant sacrifice time? Surprisingly, no. Instead, the strangers gathered round the (sleeping) baby, alerted the authorities and got the stroller off at the next stop, where yet more people protected the tyke. All of which prompted one bystander to say that she felt terrible for the mom because this was,  clearly, “the worst place in the world to lose a baby.” Worst? Where a crowd of people took care of the child, alerted the mom and made sure everything was fine? Do you think maybe we can quit thinking of every surprising or untoward situation involving kids as ALMOST a disaster, or a disaster NARROWLY THWARTED, or something that was SOMEHOW terrib...

A couple of days late, kinda fun: Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

...since the evil drones at the Chronicle won't let me cut and paste the photo I'll just cut and past my screen shot of the photo of Wilson during the parade!  So there! Stupid copyright nonsense don't apply to me :-) Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

As is almost always the case, the population of California has chosen fascism over freedom.  Yeah, I'm talking about Prop 19, the legalization of Marijuana initiative.  For some reason just over half of the idiotic vermin known as "voters" think they have the right to tell just under half of the population what herbs they can consume.  I don't even smoke weed and I probably wouldn't even if it was legal but this prohibition is just evil.  Of course the "voters" also think it's just fine to steal almost half of my money at gunpoint and give it away to others for purposes I hate simply by calling it "taxes."  I'm done with voting this time, really!  I mean it this time. Voting is a waste of time and legitimizes theft and murder and all sorts of other evil.  I am back to being an anarchist now.  Of course I'm the pacifist sort of anarchist.  I don't advocate violence to overthrow the government or anything.  Instead I s...

ARLINGTON , -- Texas - The Giants serenaded their thirsty fans with the perfect anthem before the first pitch of the 2010 World Series. The song they piped through AT&T Park was U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." The search lasted more than half a century and seemed so futile at times. Finally, the team and its long-pained fans have found what they were looking for. For the first time since the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, they are the champions of baseball. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/01/SP7S1G5BQ6.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz146GtwUXy -- Larry Devich http://larry-devich.blogspot.com/ It is more blessed to ask forgiveness than permission Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Finally! The seemingly endless wait is over. This pitching staff is awesome and will be around for a long time. IT FEELS SO GOOD!!! :-) Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from The Angry Gnome