arts-attic.com

According to my Russian built wrist watch today is the 17th of May 2014. I’m at the Hopkinton library sopping up the internet for all it’s worth but something interesting happened on the way over. My recently serviced front brakes didn’t seem to brake all that well so when I got to the library I touched the rotors to see if they were evenly warm and my hand came away greasy. I ride and antique motorcycle so yes I carry clean rags with me and I wiped both rotors clean. There’s not obvious source for black grease on the bike and the brakes had been working fine. I wonder who is trying to make a statement?

So I’ve decided to try public shaming again. It’s a New England thing along with dunking stools, stock and pillory and burning at the stake. So I e-mailed this, the first of a real-time series about what happened to Me and Lynn the summer of 2011 at the hands of Paul and Matt Doolittle.

My name is Art Joly and my Husband is Lynn Shackelford. We live together in a 32’ class “A” motorhome towing our motorcycles behind us on a trailer. I’m writing to you because over the next few months I want you to see the timeline for the crime committed by members and leadership of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester, NH.

It’s easy for people to paint me and Lynn in a bad light, I’m an adult living with Asperger’s Syndrome, I was officially diagnosed in 1993 and I suspect that Lynn is the same as me. We don’t see the world the same way that you do and most of the time we figure out why people behave the way they do through rules we’ve deduced over the years.

For me the first full weekend in May is time Rhinebeck weekend named for the automobile show held at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, NY. We don’t go anymore, we have no more cars that need parts that can only be found at car shows, and all of our friends are long gone. For the last few visits, being at the car show was like visiting a cemetery. But that’s just a little background. This is the weekend that in the spring of 2011 Paul Doolittle dragged me into a business arrangement that he had with my husband that I knew nothing about and for the most honorable of reasons I made the worst decision of my life so far.

I agreed to repay Lynn’s debt to Paul.

Paul agreed to provide me a space to work on his farm and an internet connection in addition to physical help moving and shipping stuff I sold from Lynn’s stash.

So you can have a feel for how Paul Doolittle and members of the leadership at the UUC, Manchester, NH manipulated us I’ll tell you what he did next after the right mount of time has passed.

Art Joly

The Trey Gowdy Death Threat

It was a rainy day yesterday so I engaged in my favorite intellectual enterprise, baiting arch conservatives with facts.

It started with a photo of Trey Gowdy published by The Conservative Tribune accusing the opposition party of trying to scare him with death threats and all because the other opposition party is trying to show that the current government committed some wrong doing in someplace called Benghazi that got four citizens killed.

Trey Gowdy Receives Death Threats

And it ended with my being told that “your opinion doesn’t count.” Which along with name calling is one of the tools in the opposition party member’s rhetorical toolbox.

Well, here’s an analysis from the UK’s Guardian newspaper:

The Innocence of Muslims

And here is, now that the furor has died down and no one will notice, Trey Gowdy’s retraction of his comments:

Trey Gowdy Softens His Benghazi ‘Trial’ Remark

You can repeat your story a million times but to some of us it’s still just a story and we still know that people were killed at the American Embassy in Benghazi not by lack of action on the part of the US government but by a group of radical religious extremists based in the US.

Yeah, I know, your head hurts. Get over it.
It was a rainy day yesterday so I engaged in my favorite intellectual enterprise, baiting arch conservatives with facts. It started with a photo of Trey Gowdy published by The Conservative Tribune accusing the opposition party of trying to scare him with death threats and all because the other opposition party is trying to show that the current government committed some wrong doing in someplace called Benghazi that got four citizens killed. Liberals Threaten to “Assassinate” Trey Gowdy Over Benghazi And it ended with my being told that “your opinion doesn’t count.” Which along with name calling is one of the tools in the opposition party member’s rhetorical toolbox. Well, here’s an analysis from the UK’s Guardian newspaper: Inside the strange Hollywood scam that spread chaos across the Middle East A group of rightwing extremists aimed to destabilize post-Mubarak Egypt and roil US politicians. They got their wish. And here is, now that the furor has died down and no one will notice, Trey Gowdy’s retraction of his comments: Trey Gowdy Softens His Benghazi ‘Trial’ Remark You can repeat your story a million times but to some of us it’s still just a story and we still know that people were killed at the American Embassy in Benghazi not by lack of action on the part of the US government but by a group of radical religious extremists based in the US. Yeah, I know, your head hurts. Get over it.

This post is a work in progress due to the necessary research. Keep checking back for more additions or write a comment with the cited text included. Thanks.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC): “I’m Virginia Foxx from North Carolina. 14 months ago, the House passed H.R. 803, my bill to help more American workers gain the skills and education necessary to compete for in-demand jobs. Americans are still waiting for President Obama and the Senate Democrats to act.” – See more at: http://www.speaker.gov/video/weekly-republican-address-many-bills-one-focus-jobs#sthash.gtCEKmDf.dpuf

Here’s the text of H.R. 803 H.R. 803

You may want to go get a glass of milk and some cookies for this one as it is 270 pages of Lawyer-that-can’t-hold-a-real-job legalese. I’ve only skimmed over the text to get a feel for what I’ve gotten myself into and to be honest, this it’s more detailed in micromanaging people than the Soviet government used in it’s 5-year planning.

What representative Camp said in the 10May2014 Radio Address:

House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI): “Nothing is more important than preserving the American Dream for our kids and grand-kids. That’s why Republicans are relentlessly focused on building a strong economy that produces good jobs and lasting opportunities. The trouble is, that task gets harder and harder each time the powers-that-be in Washington won’t act on a good idea. Here’s what I mean.

“I’m Dave Camp from Michigan. 14 months ago, the House passed H.R. 890, my bill to protect reforms that have helped thousands of welfare recipients find jobs and lift their families out of poverty. Americans are still waiting for President Obama and Senate Democrats to act.”

The title for H.R. 890 is “Preserving Work Requirements for Welfare Programs Act of 2013”

So preserving the American Dream for our kids and grandkids reads “We’ll give you financial and nutritional support if you have a job.”

Here’s the text of H.R. 890 as passed by the Republican controlled House of Representatives: H.R. 890 Bill Text – 113th Congress (2013-2014) from the Library of Congress.

And because H.R. 890 references a U.S. Department of Health & Human Services memorandum, Guidance concerning waiver and expenditure authority under Section 1115, here’s the memorandum: TANF-ACF-IM-2012-03

This is where I started. This big loop of hose to connect the wrong radiator to the right bike

It was a nice day yesterday and I had a choice of gong to the dump or working on my bike. Rain was correctly forecast for today. So this was a no-brainer of a decision. I had a do-able scope of work. I wanted to change the frame rail on my bike so that I could get ride of that loop of hose and install the radiator trim. Along the way I needed to install the air-dirt-whatever-it’s-there-for plate that sits behind the radiator and in front of the carburetor. Due to life getting in the way my bike hasn’t so much as been cleaned for several years so my trusty brass brush got a workout along with some odorless mineral spirits and Gunk Foamy Degreaser.

Our back yard at a park and ride in NH.

We moved here because even though you aren’t supposed to work on vehicles in a Park ‘n Ride the asphalt is pretty well stained plus we closed off this corner with a clear conscience, taking up only as many spaces as the vehicles needed and shielding my work from casual passer by.

This is the frame rail from a 1982 VF750C that I bought for parts for our bikes.

Now, last summer we bought a 1982 Honda VF750C for parts. It had already been worked on by a Harley Guy and he couldn’t get it running. For $100 it was worth more to us as much needed repair parts for our bike, bikes that hadn’t seen needed maintenance for a while. After careful comparison I decided that I could use the left side frame rail to eliminate that big loop of hose from my bike. My ’86 is already a collection of parts from various years and if I wanted to make it all one 1986 VF700C it would be cheaper to just buy another bike.

This is the old radiator hose. I was so sure that the ’82 frame rail was going to fit that I cut a piece from it to install on my newly cleaner bike.

Everything was going smoothly. I cleaned as I went along, and the new frame rail matched up at the rear frame attach point, the rear engine mount, the water pump hose, the front engine mounts both left and right and the coolant line was even with the bottom of the radiator. And then the project fell off the rails and skidded to a stop. The front frame attach point is one inch or so too short. I briefly thought about just drilling a new hole and running with one bolt and then I thought longer about spending time in the emergency room again. So back I go, at least the parts are clean now. Except that I had already cut and fitted the radiator hose. Bummer. I cut a couple of different lengths looking for a magic solution to the tight “S” bend the hose needs to make between my ’82 radiator and my ’86 bike. No magic. So off I go to the nearest “real” parts store the O’Reilly’s / VIP in Manchester on Hooksett Road. I was not in the best of moods to begin with but when Mark asked me what I needed I replied with a polite “7/8″ heater hose about 2′ long.” Mark replied “You mean 5/8″”. No. 7/8″. He walked away and came back and said “We only have 3/4″ and 1″” something I expected to hear, so no harm no foul. Then Mark said “Are you sure you didn’t mean 7/16″?”

Now I’m a 57 year old gay man and I have a gay voice. A gay voice is one that is rich in harmonics and carefully modulated because of all the time we try “Not to sound gay.” And my voice is deep and resonant. Now I want the entire store to hear my opinion of a clerk who keeps trying to tell me that I don’t know what I want, so I take a step back and announce in my best stentorian voice “Now you’re just getting to be insulting.” At which point Joseph steps up and tells me to leave the store. Huh. O’Reilly’s, Irish, Catholic?, and a gay man. Who could have seen this coming. Maybe they didn’t want to serve me in the first place?

This is the 7/8″ X 3′ piece of green stripe hose I bought at Robbin’s Auto in Manchester, NH

So I went over to Robbin’s on South Willow, they listened to my story and sold me a piece of hose, correctly suggesting that I might want another foot “Just in case.”

After a full days work this is where I ended up. Same loop of hose only new, with new coolant.

As I was being escorted to the door, I explained to Joseph that since he didn’t want to hear my complaint, I planned to complain loudly on various social media.

With newly cleaned carbs my bike is running well. I need to hunt up a good ’86 radiator. And thus ends my rant.

Here we’re 57 years old, Lynn just celebrated another birthday and he just had another visit with a doctor. Life is tough if you’re gay. Life is tough if you choose to live two lives one public and one private and try to juggle two sets of friends. Life is tough if you live a normal open life and accept what comes. But this constant stress wears at your soul. I believe in science. I understand that I need to change me mind when the facts change but basically I believe in facts. From The Advocate comes this overview of recent science:

Quantifying the Effects of Homophobia | Advocate.com

Do you remember when the Texas Republican party at their convention in 2012 wanted to have a plank forbidding the teaching of critical thinking?

Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

I got that from this: 2012Platform_Final

From here: Texas GOP, About the party.

And here is what comedian-Philosopher George Carlin said so many years ago about this very thing:

Governments don’t want well informed. well educated people capable of critical thinking. That is against their interests.

They want obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept it.
George Carlin

As always I don’t tell you what to think, that’s for you to decide. But if you’re an idiot hanging on by your fingernails and clinging to your beliefs against all reason? I’ll be the one stepping on your fingers to force you to let go and fall.

I mean I watch television using Hulu but if I’m going to pay cash (for Hulu+) I’m going to watch using NetFlix. Seriously dude, Comcast already owns NBC and NBC created Hulu, and I watch commercials to view Hulu content. So, Comcast, you want to sit in the middle and just collect money from all directions?

I got this recently from some of the places I steal internet access after trying to watch Superships:

We gotta know who you are and where you are. Sincerely, Comcast

So I was feeling magnanimous and I filled out the form and sent it in. And this is what Comcast sent in reply the next day.

Useless responce from Comcast/Hulu

Anonymous Proxy Error

And unexpectedly I received this follow up e-mail.

Hi again,

I just wanted to send a quick follow-up to see if everything’s all taken care of, or if there’s anything else I can help you with.

If you’re all set, you can let me know or I’ll just mark this as resolved if I don’t hear from you in the next few days.

Thanks,
Miranda
Hulu Support

*If everything is taken care of, you can reply “ALLSET” to let us know automatically.

Well, no everything is not alright. You still want to collect more information on my location. So I sent this snarky reply.

On Apr 29, 2014, at 1:06 AM, Hulu Support wrote:

I just wanted to send a quick follow-up to see if everything’s all taken care of

No, everything is not all taken care of. Removing the proxy server is not an option. Paying for television with commercials is an option and I’ll choose Netflix if I have to purchase even though I know that your parent company is already charging “protection” for the transport of the Netflix stream.

Art

Miranda H, Apr 25 09:30 PM:
Hi Art,

Thanks for writing in! I’m sorry to hear you’re encountering the international restrictions error. Based on the IP address you were using when you submitted this message, our system determined that your computer was accessing our site using a proxy server. Once you disable it, you should be able to watch videos on Hulu again.

A proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary between your computer and the Internet. It’s possible to use an anonymous proxy and not realize it. A few common scenarios can lead to being blocked by our system are:

1. attempting to access Hulu from outside of the United States
2. using an unsupported mobile phone to access Hulu.com
3. using a VPN or other work network to access the Internet
4. using a program on your computer to anonymize your web surfing
5. using an IP address that has been blacklisted because of previous Anonymous Proxy use

For more information about these scenarios, you can read our help article here ( http://www.hulu.com/support/article/243651 ), or reply to this message.

You can also try simply connecting to a different network entirely. If you believe strongly that you are not using an proxy of any kind, please let me know and we will investigate further.

Thanks,
Miranda H
Hulu Support

P.S. If at any time your issue is addressed or you’d like to end this conversation, let us know by replying “ALLSET”

And in responce I got this “If you don’t like us you can leave letter.

Miranda H, Apr 29 05:35 PM:
Hi Art,

Thanks for writing in. I’m sorry if the recent updates to our location services have caused any undue frustrations. Because the agreements with our content providers are so strict, we need to be able to verify that anyone who watches videos through our service is a valid user connecting from a territory within the United States.

Hulu Plus’s focus is an expanded lineup of current-season TV, which means that much of the content isn’t yet available through other channels – like DVD, Blu-ray, syndication, and so on. Because these videos are so new and have such limited availability, they’re very expensive to license. The ads you see help offset these licensing costs, all while keeping the monthly subscription price at $7.99.

In the meantime, I don’t want you to have to pay for a service you’re not able to use, so if you’d like me to cancel your Hulu Plus account for you until the issue is resolved, just let me know and I’d be happy to help. You can also cancel it yourself anytime via your account page ( www.hulu.com/account ).

Thanks,
Miranda H
Hulu Support

P.S. If at any time your issue is addressed or you’d like to end this conversation, let us know by replying “ALLSET”

NY Times on Comcast in Philadelphia

PDF I’ve saved here.Welcome to Comcast Country – NYTimes.com

WTF, Here’s the text:

PHILADELPHIA — COMCAST’S executive vice president, David L. Cohen, did not seem fazed when Senator Al Franken warned at a recent Judiciary Committee hearing that the company’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable would “result in fewer choices, higher prices and even worse service for my constituents.” Comcast argues that the merger will not decrease competition among cable television or broadband Internet providers because the two companies do not directly compete — though the reason for that is that they already maintain virtual monopolies in many of their service areas.

In Comcast’s case, that monopoly is predicated upon exerting overwhelming political control. Just ask anyone who lives in Philadelphia, where the shiny 975-foot Comcast Center looms over the skyline. As buttons at the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia proclaimed: “Welcome to Comcast Country.”

Here, politicians heap unalloyed praise on Comcast’s chairman and chief executive, Brian L. Roberts, and his father, the company’s founder, Ralph J. Roberts.

“You will have to search long and hard in this city to find anyone who will say anything bad about Comcast or the Robertses,” the former governor of Pennsylvania and mayor of Philadelphia, Edward G. Rendell, told a reporter in 2001. Not incidentally, Mr. Cohen served as Mayor Rendell’s chief of staff before taking over Comcast’s political shop and becoming the Robertses’ consigliere.

Starting in Philadelphia, Comcast built a hometown political machine and turned it into a national juggernaut. In 2013, the company spent $18.8 million on federal lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That’s more than all but six other corporations. The company is also a major donor, making nearly $5.5 million in federal political contributions during the 2012 cycle.

Recipients of Comcast’s largess include President Obama and Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation in Washington, a veritable Comcast caucus. In 2011, Pennsylvania’s two senators, Patrick J. Toomey, a Republican, and Robert P. Casey Jr., a Democrat, scolded the Federal Communications Commission for taking too long to vote on Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal: “The American people,” they wrote, “have waited for more than a year for the benefits of this transaction to come to fruition.” The two have now joined hands across the aisle to back the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. And the F.C.C.’s new move to weaken the principle of net neutrality suggests that, once again, Comcast’s wishes will be granted.

The effort to sideline concerns about consumer protection was pioneered in Philadelphia in 1999, when Comcast was aided by City Hall in keeping a rival company, RCN, out of the local cable market.

“Good God!” Mr. Rendell recalled telling RCN, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. “We have to tear up the streets so you can come in here and compete against one of our best corporate citizens?”

Mr. Rendell reportedly suggested that RCN move its headquarters to Philadelphia and “get involved” with the mayoral campaign of John F. Street, who later succeeded him in office. RCN executives donated, but Comcast gave more.
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Politicians here express their corporate loyalty in the tribal terms typically reserved for the city’s professional sports teams. (In fact, the Philadelphia Flyers and their hockey arena are owned by Comcast-Spectacor.) But many customers in Philadelphia demur: Comcast service here is expensive and poor, as customers everywhere complain. The company consistently receives among the lowest ratings of any major cable TV or Internet service provider.
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Recent Comments
markomd
5 days ago

TWC is atrocious already and gives about the worst service and quality in the industry. Good luck, Philadelphia.
PE
5 days ago

The Comcast remote works like a cold war relic, or an 80s cell-phone. You would think, with all their profits, they would reinvest in 21st…
Charles
5 days ago

I remember when cable TV came to Philadelphia back around the Bicentennial, after being restricted to the suburbs previously. I think…

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“It bothers us that we have trouble delivering real high-quality service on a consistent basis,” Mr. Cohen conceded at the recent Senate hearing. In 2003, lawyers sued on behalf of some two million Philadelphia-area Comcast customers alleging that the company employed anti-competitive measures, including the exclusion of RCN. Plaintiffs sought damages of $875 million. But last year, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that they could not proceed as a class.

Angry Philadelphians have also protested the tax breaks lavished on the company — at a time when the city’s underfunded school system is in dire crisis. The gleaming Comcast Center was subsidized by $42.75 million in state grants and other assistance, and the project is reaping millions of dollars from the city’s property-tax abatement for new construction. A planned second tower will stand 1,121 feet tall.

Mr. Rendell describes the upside to Philadelphia’s Comcast fealty as “incalculable.” And so are the costs, considering Comcast’s many subsidiaries based in the great American onshore tax haven of Delaware and by the corporate tax secrecy in Pennsylvania; Comcast has opposed efforts to close the “Delaware loophole.” According to Citizens for Tax Justice, Comcast paid an estimated average state corporate income tax rate of just 4 percent from 2008 to 2012.

Mr. Cohen recently told The Inquirer that it was “demeaning to elected officials to suggest that their support can be bought.” Yet he has also acknowledged that the company’s political donations are aligned to “support an agenda that is supportive of the company.”

Philadelphia is a digital-age company town where the proper relationship between business and government has been turned on its head. Welcome, indeed, to Comcast Country.

Daniel Denvir is a senior staff writer at Philadelphia City Paper.