Subscribe to blog
Sorry about the alliteration… it’s a hard habit to break. Well today I had to give a presentation in one of my classes about a pretty big research paper that I wrote this semester on Civil Asset Forfeiture (for those of you interested in learning what this is or what’s wrong with it comment and I’ll either post it on our site as a Word attachment… if this is possible… Bob? Or I’ll email it too you) and I don’t think I did very well. My presentation was limited to 10 minutes which I didn’t think was very fair since they had originally indicated that it would be 12 minutes… but either way it wouldn’t have been nearly enough time. In my paper I went into the history of Civil Asset Forfeiture and told all about its evolution in the U.S. and finally what is wrong with it. That’s an awful lot of material to cover, and the only preparation I did was reading through my paper the hour before I had to present. Needless to say my time management could have stood for some improvement. I barely got through explaining what it is and what the law is today in America when my professor held up the 2 minutes left sign so I had to really rush through what was intended to be the meat and potatoes of my paper, the criticisms of the policy. A couple of people told me afterwards that I did a good job, but I was a lot more nervous than I had thought I would be. Mainly though I just felt pissed because I feel pretty strongly about the abolition of Civil Asset Forfeiture after doing all of my research and I would have liked to have got the message out there a little more. Oh well though, at least it’s over with and as a bonus (well depending on your preference I guess) it gave me something to make a little post about today. I’m going to leave you with a little joke that the Sheriff of Ada County told in a presentation he made to one of my classes today:
The CIA, FBI, and LAPD are all trying to prove that they are the best crime fighters, so the President sets up a test to find out which one really is. For the test he releases a rabbit into the forest and tells each agency to go in and catch it.
The CIA set up a network of animal informants in the forest, questioned all plant and mineral witnesses, and after 3 months of extensive research determined that there are no such things as rabbits, never have been such a thing as rabbits, and that more funds are required to assess the forests capabilities of possibly creating rabbits in the future.
The FBI went in after two weeks of no leads and burned down the entire forest killing the rabbit and everything else. They made no apologizes claiming thatthe rabbit had it coming.
The LAPD immediately went into the forest after the rabbit and came out two hours later with a badly beaten bear, who was overheard saying “Okay, Okay! I’m a rabbit….”
I thought that was great. Alright well I’m off to the movies now, I’ll catch you all later
Call it emphasis if you will, I call it lying
Now in my CD Player: The Crystal Ship from the album “The Best of the Doors [1985] (1 of 2)” by The Doors or if you are in Japan, click here
In case you weren’t infuriated enough, if you disagree with Bush, you’re going down.
Benjamin Disraeli: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
S. Patrick Eaton: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and ‘matters of emphasis’.”
Johnny’s post yesterday reminded me of the frustration I have felt since I was in high school, and actually for the reason why i have the t4ac.com domain name. I think that people tend to just live their lives and not worry about whether what they are doing is right or wrong; smart or dumb; generous or self-serving or both. I try to completely reconsider my life at least 2 or 3 times a year because I need to feel that my being here has some purpose, and I want to make that purpose as great as I can. Am I doing something that I will be proud of when I look back at my life? Will I be able to say to myself that the world improved as a result of me living on it? If I was hit by a bus tomorrow would my family and friends know how much they meant to me?
Now I’m starting to get off subject a little, but I feel it is important for a person to occasionally examine where they are in life, and whether where they are is where they would like to be. I also think that it is crucial to try to be a thinking person in everyday life. When you see something on the tv don’t just absorb it, consider the source and what effect that source may have on the accuracy of the information you are receiving, consider what the information means for the world and for you in general, and consider what you can do to improve something if you think it isn’t right. I think the Internet has made this harder in some ways. With the bombardment of information available all the time, sometimes it is easy to let others do your thinking for you. I think one of the most important things for us to do today in the era of big business running government AND the media, is to avoid falling into the trap of accepting everything at face value, and assuming that there is nothing you can do.
This brings me down to the t4ac.com domain name. I have the domain name because of a ‘zine (in Japan read free paper) that I used to produce called Think For a Change Magazine. I keep thinking I will resurrect it, at least online, but I never seem to have the time to get to it. Anyway, the goal of the ‘zine was to, you guessed it, make people think. I tried to introduce some thoughts on a topic, but leave it open enough for people to have their own thoughts on it fairly easily. I guess I wanted the ‘zine to be a catalyst of sorts. The main topics of interest were political and social issues, particularly how people can participate in their world daily to improve it.
I also did book, ‘zine, and music reviews in TFAC (I wanted tfac.com, but never managed to get it). As a result I still get music and stuff for review occasionally. I had a policy of accepting no paid advertising, but offering free advertising to any organization or band or whatever, that i felt were promoting ideas that coincided with the policies of the ‘zine (i.e. free thought basically).
It has occurred to me, that I have a few readers on this blog who seem to be fairly like minded and have some Japanese skills. It also seems to me, that in Japan, where very few people seem to be inclined to influence the world at all, a publication like Think For a Change magazine is especially needed. I wonder if anyone out there would be interested/willing in helping to get this project on it’s feet again. I envision a small-run print version and an online version (probably using moveable type) taking the place of the half-done site currently occupying www.t4ac.com.
to be honest I could only devote minimal time to it at this point, but if someone is interested or inspired by the idea, I would be happy to have someone take over stewardship of the project for a time. I would promise to write for it. Please accept my assurances that I put more effort into my writings for ‘zines and such than I do for this site. I consider this site more of an anything goes, conversational style forum, and write accordingly.
If you’re interested in TFAC let me know, and who knows maybe we can figure something out that will eventually turn into a positive thing for Japan.
Be Constructive, Not Destructive (my signature in the first issue of tfac),
UltraBob
P.S. Come to think of it, I think TFAC was the first public emergence of the UltraBob pen name as well.
Now in my CD Player: Old School Pig from the album “Life in the Fat Lane: Fat Music, Vol. 4” by Tilt or if you are in Japan, click here
or even easier still - in your blog trolling find some appropriate entries on people’s blogs and ask to use them or rewrite them and then use them - 37 bloggers in the webring = instant zine!
feel free to approach me about using any of my rants (^^)
Man I can’t believe it, a major political figure (Ralph Nader) spoke at my campus tonight and I could have got in for free. Yet I didn’t go, neither did anyone I know, in fact except for this one hippie chick passing out flyers for it I never heard it discussed at all. The man was the primary third candidate in a Presidential election for Gods sake! Even if he hadn’t been in the election, he’s a huge advocate of consumer rights and small business, both things which a lot of people would be interested in (if they had interests). I mean seriously what is wrong with my generation? My country is in a war right now, a freakin war for crying out loud! And yet on campus, outside of the occasional reference, you wouldn’t even know it. I mean sure, when war was pending we had a peace demonstration (garnered about 100 people) and then we had a war demonstration (garnered about 100 people). Aside from this pathetic turnout it has just been life as usual, I guess no one has the energy for social concerns anymore. Maybe you are thinking “Geez John that sucks… but maybe your campus is just self-centered and only cares about local issues?” Well you are wrong my friend. We just had a student election. We have over 17,000 students attending our university and guess what kind of voter turnout we had? About 900 people voted…. 900!! Now I’m no rocket scientist, but according to my calculations that’s less than a 5% turnout. Now it’s true that Boise State is largely made up of non-traditional students, but so what? These people are in chare of appropriating something like $150,000 for student programs and clubs. That seems like an awful lot of money for us to let people handle without even considering who stands for what, and what they will support. What do you think has led to this state of affairs in America? I mean this isn’t just a Boise State University Problem, or a Boise problem, or an Idaho problem. I think the problem is that nothing seems to impact us directly, nothing seems quite real. The news we see on t.v. seems just like everything else we see on t.v. Unless it’s my family, or me personally what do I care? It’s ironic that I’m the one who is posting about this, and let me tell you why. I’m the guy that just takes whatever classes I need to get by, and tries to get the easiest professors regardless of whether this is going to help me learn or not. I’m the guy who didn’t vote in the last Presidential election, much less the Boise State one. I’m the guy who belongs to no student organizations, volunteers for nothing, does no independent research, and has no real hobbies to speak of. I’m the guy who started this post 2 freakin weeks ago and is just now finally forcing himself to finish it! Yeah that’s right, it’s ironic that I am posting about Apathy (in a negative light) seeing as how I’m its poster-boy. I don’t care about anything and I never get involved. I don’t watch out for my neighbors and I don’t meet new people! It’s ridiculous and I for one vow to change… if I can ever make myself care….
Don’t worry about it, if it was a real problem it would be part of “President” Bush’s Axis of Evil. Kick back and relax and enjoy the coming of summer, doesn’t the warmth make you feel like taking a nap? There you go…
Also I would have really loved to see Ralph Nader speak. You should have gone!
hm.. i feel the same, i guess. anyway, first of all, this isn’t a local problem, exactly the same stuff is going on back at my university in germany. while for our parents the campus was a place full of politic ideas and campaigns, for me and my friends it is merely a place where you attend (or not) courses with people you neither know nor care about.
as you, my idea of how i should particiate in the social system that surrounds me and in the way i actually do not do anything at all sometimes vexes me… i consider myself politically aware & eqipped with common sense, so of course i feel that i should read newspaper, watch news on tv, vote etc, but whenever i deal with these subjects they become amazingly annoying; you feel like yelling at the tv, watching cnn with its horribly propagandic/pathetic 5-second war-trailers, etc, things like that just make you wanna hide from reality, which is what i / we do most of the time, i guess..
yet you know that you actually should care..
it’s like election-time here in japan. all the cars packed with politicians, smile switched on, yelling at people via the stereo, it’s supposed to make you wanna vote them, but all it does do is that it makes you wish you could cast a vote here, so that you could NOT VOTE to show them how much it annoys you..
gee, sounds fuzzy, eh? i wish i could blog in german.. 
Ziam, great comment. Yes I know exactly what you mean, what the heck is wrong with us? By the way I understand your frustrations with trying to adequately express yourself in English, I have that same difficulty… but it’s the only language I speak!
What’s with the tokyo*.com sites? In the last half hour I’ve tried to comment on both tokyotidbits.com and tokyoshoes.com and have been rejected. I’m starting to have self-esteem issues. TokyoShoes told me I am forbidden which is a bit harsh I think. On the other hand tokyotidbits told me to send an e-mail to the administrator telling him what I’d done to screw up their site.
I think I’ll go eat worms.
Now in my CD Player: What Could I Have Done from the album “Quetzalcoatl” by J Church or if you are in Japan, click here
Must just be you sunshine...I had no trouble (although Tokyo Shoes has been remodelling today maybe something has glitched in the matrix)
*passes the mayo*
Oh no Ultrabob!
Please don’t eat worms. I am in the process giving my site a “face lift.” I have not (knowingly) forbid anyone from commenting on my site, not even the person who told me I am not funny. Please be patient, my comments will be fixed soon, I hope!
Nadine
Nadine,
I knew your site was under reconstruction, wasn’t worried about it at all; I just enjoy eating worms.
UltraBob
I’m doing some major server updates right now, so bear with us please.
The server may go down from time to time as well, so just be patient.
The server will definitely go down at about 9:50 P.M. JST so I can add a hard drive to the Server. After that the neighborhood project is good to go!
Not much time to write, but The Neighborhood Project has had it’s first submission other than mine! submitted some great pictures of his neighborhood in Noge-cho. I especially found the pictures of the ice vendor interesting, oh yeah not to mention the very virile tanuki . Have no idea what I’m talking about? I guess you’ll have to check out the gallery won’t you?
Naughty student for not preparing...still the joke was amusing (^^)
I would like to read your presentation onasset foreiture!