I visit the VA

Yesterday, 2012-02-13, I paid a visit to the VA hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah– The Veterans Administration. I went to the VA hospital out of necessity, since my medical expenses had overrun what I had spent for the allowable deduction that I had spent, and was reduced to going to the VA.

Now, I had not experienced a VA hospital since approximately 1986, and it seemed to me to be much worse than I had remembered. Even though, as VA’s went, the Salt Lake City VA is considered to be one of the better VA hospitals. It was still, in my observation that we are and have been treated by less than second class citizens, although it seems to me to be the case that we are attempting to get nothing more than what we were promised as part of the enlistment contract.

When I first entered the VA hospital, it was in the main in admissions. As I am getting used to apologizing for myself, I had first stated, at one of the two people at admissions, that I have had a stroke and I am probably not too aware of everything I should be paying attention to. The guy at the counter was very helpful in directing me to the emergency room in order to get myself a VA ID card.

And then the waiting in patience had started.

I had seen some people who were looking sorry for themselves– realizing that they would never to rise above the VA, always looking and waiting for their number to be called before they would ever even give themselves a chance to tell them that they really needed care immediately rather than waiting from 30-60 minutes before the nurse in the hospital would even call their number to see what their problem was.

I have seen people that were full of pride, of who and what they were, standing straight and tall as they walked, and just doing what they needed to do in order to get out of the VA hospital as quickly as possible. Not because they were reduced to using a less than ideal medical system, something that was run just like a socialist system– the type of health system that Obama wants for all of us– with all of its obvious flaws, and attempting to use the patients as much as they could without being killed by these inherent flaws.

I had also seen people who were a full awareness of what they were getting involved in with the VA– with its socialized medicine system– and they looked as if they were waiting to their last hope.

All in all, even in Salt Lake City, it was very depressing to me, even though I had only spent approximately 45-60 minutes for me. I really hope that I will never undergo a VA medical procedure under these people, although one of the first things I will be looking into is an endoscopy. With me luck that I survive the damn thing.

How To Undelete SOME Types Of Files On Linux

I know that the following will work on ext2 and ext3, and presumable ext4. I am not certain about other filesystems, you will need to check this out yourself.

Suppose that, for whatever reason, you have deleted a really really important file on your filesystem, and for curious reason you do not have a backup of the file. While there are utilities that can undelete files, under certain situations, we can undelete the file in one or two minutes. You will be need to make certain that the file is still open and running in an application. Nevertheless, please bear with me on this, as there are several other utilities to undelete files, however, these processes will generally have you grinding through the entire filesystem, which can take several minutes. The process that I will be detailing is a bit easier than trying to grind through a three Terra-byte filesystem just to find the damn file.

First: Make certain that the file is still opened throughout the process, because if the file closes, the it will be gone, and you’ll need to use a different undelete. And while you are at it, just to make certain, do not close any application, just to be safe.

Second: Open a terminal and enter 

lsof | grep “/path/to/filename”

If the file being used by a running application, then you should see something like

amarok 11878 kevin 61u REG 254,9 33722194 243326   /home/public/some.ogg 

If you have no output, then the file is not opened to an active process and you need to go find yourself an application to undelete the process through some other way.

Third: Take a look at the output from step 2. You will need the numbers from the second and the fourth columns. This would be 11878 and 61u, but drop the non-numeric character to ‘u’. Now enter the following command:

cp /proc/11878/fd/61 /path/to/undeleted.file

Now, you will see that the original file has been saved to /path/to/undeleted.file

And, that’s it!

 

I Am An Angry Atheist!

I have been an atheist since approximately 1988. I say approximately because my deconversion to atheism was a process of approximately three years, and I had not “officially” declared myself as an atheist for several years afterwards, I was, indeed, an atheist in 1988.

Now, as an atheist, I sometimes get angry. This anger of mine is based upon two issues: The first being because the Christian privilege in the USA, and the second because of the general dislike for atheists and atheism.

Let’s face it, there is a Christian privilege in the USA. As much as some people wish to deny it, there is a Christian privilege such that when interacting with another, it is automatically assumed that the other is. likewise, a Christian. This Christian privilege, with the automatic assumption of Christianity, is a source of my anger. The Christians create a general hostility at the assumption of this privilege, with their presumption of Christianity and their all disdain for who are not Christian. The holiday seasons, which existed before Christianity, rather that even merely allow me, as an atheist, to be left alone to celebrate the holiday seasons in my own way, are constantly bombarded by Christmas, claiming that Christianity is “the reason for the season”, when the case is clearly not “the reason for the season”.

The claim that the USA is a “Christian nation”, when clearly is not, based upon the treaty of Triploi, is another piece of nonsense that has been attempting to usurp the country. Tim Tebow has been given a “free pass” to flaunt the rules, for which he has yet to pay a single for his violation, because Tebow is a Christian. The delusion that Christians own a unanimous ownership on morality, with the common misunderstanding that the only way that you can be a moral person is through Christian, or some sort of belief system, anything but atheism.

The fact that atheists have been marginalized for no less than 1170 years, often recently having to keep quiet about their atheism or potentially face the stigma of losing a job or a place to live. And in today’s society, with the resurgence, after 1170 years, that atheists have been starting to become verbal, in some situations, in merely stating that they are atheists, we have the Christians being told that we should just “shut the fuck up” up about it. And through it all, the Christians claim that they are being attacked and persecuted by atheists.

Sorry, people, it just isn’t so. The Christians have slipped their lead from 100% to 99%, and the Christians are putting up a fuss, merely because the Christians have lost an insignificant degree of footing. This is the nature of the Christian privilege, a privilege that has been around for so long that when the Christian privilege has been evoked, it is not seen for what it is, and is automatically assumed that as “just the way things are” and never seen as Christian privilege.

Hence, I am angry.

Not because Christians, per say, exist. I am angry that I need to run the risk of telling the wrong person and screwing it up for me because I am an atheist. I am angry that Christians DO NOT REALIZE that there is a huge Christian privilege, something that is, for the most part, invisible to other Christians. And when I should tell someone that I am an atheist, I dislike that I need to defend my position, that I need to defend that I AM a good person, even though I do not accept the existence of a deity, and that I need defend my position with someone who wants to argue with me with the latest (Kalam) Cosmological argument. Teleological, Pascal’s wager, or any of the few arguments, all dead and buried for hundreds of years, when I tell someone that I am an atheist.

Yes, I am pissed. And you would be too!

We Do Not Need More Control

In the political realm, we are often told that simpler times, approximately 100 or more years ago, that society was such that allowed us a greater degree of freedom. Alas, we are told, the society has become sufficiently complex to disallow that very same degree of freedom, today. We have been told, directly of indirectly, that modern society is complex to the point that there needs a greater degree of governmental control.

I disagree.

However, given our 313,000,000 people in the United States, how is it possible for someone to competently, and control, the economic, political, social, technological, and every aspect of our society within a single individual. For only by an individual can an effectively control the fabric of society. Even just governing a single facet of society is within the realm of anything of such an undertaking.

As society continues to increase complexity, we will have a greater need of a self-adapting process that only free and individuals can give us. For no single individual, nor group of individuals, can even wield sufficient control over the economy, nor any other sector, to effectively wield anything to any great effect.

Thus, as our society becomes more complex, we need to have less control of people rather than more.

New Years Resolutions

I cannot remember when the last new year’s resolution I had made, if ever. It seems to me that new year’s resolutions a just damn foolish attempts at pretending to change rather than to really attempt to change. As attests to the fact that only approximately 12% of new year’s resolutions actually succeed.

If one were truly sincere about any sort of new year’s resolution, then they would have made the resolution at the time and place that they had made made the decision rather then making any sort of new year’s resolution. Hence, the new year’s resolution is, generally, doomed for failure.

This is, probably, because the new year’s resolution is only nominally sincere, with most people generally during some sort of pseudo-new-year’s-resolution-ritual, as if the act of stating some ritualistic new year’s resolution is anything but doomed to failure.

Instead, I would suggest that if and when you have a sincere resolution to do a thing then you do it then and there. Forget the nonsense of an “official” resolution that you either come up on the spot or wait around for 1 January to commit your resolution. Just do it. Do it now.

A Brief Note On I Will Not Vote For Ron Paul

I would guess I could possible like and agree with Ron Paul were it not for three reasons. Now, these reasons are sufficiently powerful to me such that I will probably never agree to Ron Paul, much to my consternations.

The government of the United States of America is organized such that the power of the president is limited by both the legislature as well as the judicial branch. This means that for the means the Ron Paul to bring about his stated plans for the country, he will need for the legislature and the judicial branches to be sufficiently stay out of the way to allow them to do their thing.

Do you really think that will do this? Really?

If an executive order of any sort is written… then the dream is shattered the dream and Ron Paul just becomes yet another tyrant.

And how are we to know that Ron Paul will be true to his stated goals once he comes into power? Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Ron Paul, like every president since George Washington, has been corrupt in some way. Who are we to know that Ron Paul will not, in some fundamental way, change once he does gather power.

Also, Ron Paul is a Christian.

Reading About The News

I am, to some people, a bit odd of an individual. I do not watch the news or television, I do not read newspapers, I try to limit myself to the general media. I think it may have been Samuel Clemens, although I unable find the quote, that claimed that the media was essentially that there was a war in another country, that the was a murder in another town, and that the economy is improving. And, it seems to me, that that is the entirety of all the “usable” contents that occurs in the news.

So, why should I bother reading about worthless facts that occur that others call “news”. Since if anything is really important to me, someone else will tell me, generally with people running and screaming and everyone moving in one direction.

I think that it was O.J. Simpson that ruined the media for me. And the less said about the O.J. Simpson media circus, the better. I was a final realization that the media was a joke, and that most, if not all, things coming from the media are a deception of whatever is really important. It was a realization that, whether intentional or not, the news became entertainment more than it became NEWS. And that, my friends, is what ruined it for me.

Additionally, if I isolate myself as far as I am from the media, I can honestly say that I really don’t know what is going on, and I would like to think that I am partially immune from some of the stupid damn things that many people won’t allow themselves because they know that a thing is illegal. For the phrase “ignorance of the law is no excuse” is ONLY applicable to those things that are inherently evil and not just for committing a merely statutory rule. Hence, since I am pretty well ignorant of many statutory laws, I am just not aware of the statutes. Besides, there are too many statutes for anyone to actually know about, anyway.

And, you know, I am perfectly content with being blissfully ignorant of most of the “news” occurring. I really have generally no idea about the latest television travesty that is commonly passed along for entertainment, and I have been so blissfully ignorance since 1990. I’ve stopped reading newspapers, and have only watched DVDs on the television for ever and a day.

And, you know, that’s OK for me.

The War On X-mas

The War On X-mas

There are some people, it seems to me to be mostly conservative Christian, that are insisting that there is a great plot against Christmas. We are told that this war against Christmas has been has been started by the Atheists, often claiming that they are concerned for the sensitivities of other religious groups who do not celebrate Christmas. This attitude on the part of the conservative Christians, it seems to me, is a bit bitchy and disingenuous.

It seems to me that the war in Christmas is more of a response to the undeniable and inevitable loss of Christian privilege that has survived for approximately 1070 years than anything else.

However, upon further evidence, it is not, indeed, the fact that Christmas is of Christianity. Like so many other belief systems, Christianity pre-dates Christmas.

For a brief list of Winter festivals: Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, Into Raymi, Bodhi Day, Samhain, Winter Solstice, Imbolc, Calan Gaeaf, Chinese New Year, Modranect, Yule, Diwali, Pancha Ganapati, Bhaubeej, Hanukkah, Tu Bishvat, Ramadan, Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-Adha, Sahed, Yalda, Chahar Shanbeth Suri, Saturnalia, Lupercalia, Koleda, Malanka, Maslenitsa, to name a few of the Winter festival.

Now, given the above list of Winter festivals, some of which pre-date Christianity, and hence Christmas, do you mean to tell me that you think that Jesus is really the reason for the season? Give me a fucking break!

Christmas is a universal construct that had initially commemorates the noticeable lengthening of the length of the day. To say anything other than this is a pure fantasy.
As Christmas is such a near universal holiday, while it may not be a purely secular holiday, it is, nevertheless, part of the time of the festivities. So, while we may not even pay any attention to the belief that a Cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree, we, as Atheists, can and do celebrate X-mas.

However, x-mas has become a generic celebration that is, by many people, a secular holiday, even by religious people. For all that the conservative Christians may claim, Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus.

Cellular Blues

My cellular service is going to be expired on 15 January 2012. My wife and I have had several service contracts with several companies over the years. I think that it is time to just give up and stop using a cellular telephone.

In terms of what is offered, it certainly is not worth the service provided. Even with your most basic cellular service, the value we have been getting is always much less than the service provided.

Always.

Sure, it will be a pain in the ass for a short while, but I think that, for me at least, I really don’t need it. Additionally, it seems to me that, at least in the US, all cellular telephone service sucks. It isn’t really worth it to be treated like this.

Plus, we’ll have some extra cash every month.

I Do Not Wish To Bore You

I do not wish to bore anyone. But, right now, I am still a bit scattered. It seems to me that the only physical straight is the 2-3 digits on the right of my fingers– with the middle finger being a bit “weird”– and my left eye, which has been messed off for several months prior.

It seems that I have been having minor several stroke over the past few month, and the largest one a few weeks ago, for which I went to my the hospital.

My mind, however, has taken a hit. I wonder if it is really worth continuing. The situation, I am hold, is not all that bad. But I cannot see it that way.

I imagine that I will get it up, for now.