Mr Mahatma--who is a Mr in real life--lives in the valleys of Southern California with his wife, a herd of Dears, and an impressive collection of books. Pnorny!
He is reachable at:
littlemrmahatma@yahoo.com

All writings are copyrighted 2003-2008 and trademarked: Little Mr. Mahatma

tBlog Mirror

Some fun links:
Little Miss Attila - polar opposite and origin of LMM.

Critical Sites:
Dr. Forbush Thinks
Slashdot
Games Slashdot
UserFriendly
James Randi
Snopes
Home of the Underdogs
The Sun Online

For those generous in spirit, heart, and wallet:

Rip off.

So I figured I'd get the DVD at Target. They usually have better prices on DVDs anyway. Got home. Fired up the computer and check Target online. There it was - "Kronk's New Groove" for...

$29.99.

WHAT THE ?!?

Amazon - $29.99

(sputtering, choking sounds from Little Mr. Mahatma)

As I've blogged before, DVDs should cost no more than $6 retail. $8 absolute tops. To sell DVDs for $19.99 or $29.99 each is like selling gasoline for $3.50 a gallon. It's a blatant ripoff. BLATANT-RIPOFF! And yet these same companies have the gall to cry about losing profits to pirates.

HEY EXECUTIVES!!! YOU'RE LOSING MONEY BECAUSE (1) NO ONE WANTS TO PAY PREMIUM FOR YOUR CRAP; And (2) THERE'S SOOOOO MUCH STUFF OUT THERE ALREADY, YOU'RE COMPETING AGAINST YOURSELF. So you'll excuse me while I go to EBay and find that the DVD I want can be had for about $8, including media shipping. Get a clue guys.

Maybe even the serious threat of action will spur Bush to do something legal, ethical, or semi-not-selfserving for once. But likely it would only result in a long vacation in Gitmo for this Mahatma. What an image I just had: Kafkaesque bureaucracy tinged with Nazi regalia. But can there be a better description of what's going on? Thanks to Bush, we live in age of secrecy, distrust, fear, paranoia beyond which I can usually blame on Microsoft. It's too much. It's not American. It's not us.

Recall Bush!

Senate rejects flag desecration amendment

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - A constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration died in a
Senate cliffhanger Tuesday, a single vote short of the support needed to send 
it to the states for ratification and four months before voters elect a new 
Congress.

The 66-34 tally in favor of the amendment was one less than the two-thirds 
required. The House surpassed that threshold last year, 286-130.

President Bush, who supports the amendment, called the failed vote 
unfortunate and commended Republicans and Democrats who voted to move 
the ratification process forward. In a statement, Bush said he continued to 
believe that "the American people deserve the opportunity to express their 
views on this important issue."

The proposed amendment, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (news, bio, voting 
record), R-Utah, read: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical 
desecration of the flag of the United States."

It represented Congress' response to Supreme Court rulings in 1989 and 1990 
that burning and other desecrations of the flag are protected as free speech 
by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Senate supporters said the flag amounts to a national monument in cloth that 
represents freedom and the sacrifice of American troops.

"Countless men and women have died defending that flag," said Majority 
Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., closing two days of debate. "It is but a small humble 
act for us to defend it."

Our Government needs to focus on important things like where the money is disappearing to in Iraq and why our President believes himself above the Law. Accountability is a much bigger issue than this time and money wasting Flag Amendment.

Bush ignores laws he inks, vexing Congress

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain thought he had a 
deal when President Bush, faced with a veto-proof margin in Congress, 
agreed to sign a bill banning the torture of detainees. Not quite. While Bush 
signed the new law, he also quietly approved another document: a signing 
statement reserving his right to ignore the law. McCain was furious, and so 
were other lawmakers.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is opening hearings this week into what has 
become the White House's favorite tool for overriding Congress in the name of 
wartime national security.

Bush slams leak of terror financing info

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent 

WASHINGTON -
President Bush said Monday it was "disgraceful" that the news media had 
disclosed a secret CIA-Treasury program to track millions of financial records 
in search of terrorist suspects. The White House accused The New York 
Times of breaking a long tradition of keeping wartime secrets. 

But it took just a few moments of realization that tomorrow it's back to work and my ulcer and tensions kicked back up. It's just not fair. Maybe I should try a 4/10 work week since the commute's going to keep me from home anyway. Or, I should win the darn lottery. 80 mil would do the trick. You listening up there? How about a little taste for Ol' Mahatma? Let me spend some quality time with the family, get the house repaired, take care of the elder Mahatmas. The money would be for a good cause, I guarantee.

School is out so the vultures are on the loose for summer. That's something I miss from when I was unemployed, having the summer back (and fall, winter, and spring). It was nice not working plus having the time to spend with the kids. And they're growing up too fast. One is now out of elementary school but I know it was yesterday or last month that he just entered Kindergarten. Damn clock ticks too fast. No more diapers, highchairs, drop cloths. No more "Goodnight Moon" at bedtime. No more giggles at tummy tickles. A part of me wishes that I started having kids at an earlier age and had more of them. My wife begs to differ at the technical aspects but agrees with the sentiments. I guess we have the post-baby blues about 5 years too late.

Oh well. The temperatures been well over a hundred but is now looking like it might break. The early evenings have been wonderful. It's a shame I don't really drink much alcohol. I expect a nice light wine would fit in the scenario. Bed time now as soon as the kids are done with their video. Bugs Bunny. One can't argue with that.

Analysis: CIA program expands Bush's power

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - A secret CIA-Treasury program to track financial records of 
millions of Americans is the latest installment in an expansion of executive 
authority in the name of fighting terrorism. The administration doesn't apologize 
for President Bush's aggressive take on presidential powers. Vice President 
Dick Cheney even boasts about it.

Bush has made broad use of his powers, authorizing warrantless wiretaps, 
possibly collecting telephone records on millions of Americans, holding 
suspected terrorists overseas without legal protections and using up to 6,000 
National Guard members to help patrol the border with Mexico.

That's in addition to the vast anti-terrorism powers Congress granted him in the 
recently extended Patriot Act.

Civil liberties activists, joined by congressional Democrats and some members 
of Bush's own party, suggest the president has pushed the envelope too far 
— usurping authority from Congress and abusing individual privacy rights in the 
process.

So far, the administration has been unapologetic.

But what we're really talking about here is data mining and I have two article links that may give some insight as to the effectiveness of the overnments snooping. The first article is called TIAin't and it examines some problems and fallacies of "data mining for terrorists". The second article Using Data Mining to Find Terrorists expands on the first article and shows some likely pitfalls faced by the miners.

In short, you must ask yourself whether it is worth giving up so much of your privacy and freedoms for what has be called a theoretical direction of attack against terrorists. Considering the Government refuses to give explicit examples of ANY terrorist caught by either phone tapping or money tracing, we must question the efficacy of such policies as well as the true intention of the Government

This we do know about our Government. It is corrupt beyond measure. Why they should expect us to believe anything they say or do is beyond fathom. That Bushs' approval rating is rock bottom is no surprise. We need a change for the better. We, and the rest of the World, deserve a change for the better.

I laughed. Our government here isn't exactly trustworthy or morally stable either. Too often we hear from our elected officials how they'll do one thing and they'll do the opposite. If you question their actions you get spin, spin, and more spin. For myself I want honesty from the get-go. If a politician smoked pot then say so. Don't hem and haw and look at your poll ratings to determine your answer.

Well, I'll generalize and state that likely most governments suffer from the same predicament of interpretive morality and a fair level of corruption. After all, the First Rule of any government is simple: stay in power - keep the system. So, for us, switching from Democrats to Republicans doesn't change things all that much. Bush just happens to be a crappy Republican President, like we've had crappy Democratic Presidents. I would prefer a good Republican to a crappy Democrat but there aren't any of either party right now. Third party? Forget it - the Big Two have made damn sure a third party won't gain a true foothold in our political system because of the above First Rule.

True revolution comes bloodily from the people and, frankly, the American people are too freakin' braindead from their TVs, video games, iPods, and constant electronic brain numbing to achieve any decent change. Pity that.

One of my sons asked whether Yao will come to L.A.. I don't know whether Buss (or his successor) will pony up that kind of dough considering that the big money has to go to Kobe. Now if the Lakers could get a Dirk Nowitzski clone, maybe there'd be a ring awaiting.

But Wade...woof!...what a player!

And Thursday is the big day for the U.S. in the World Cup. They need to beat Ghana by about a jillion goals to get to the next round. If the U.S. loses, well, the next version will have Freddy Adu on board and maybe he can make some magic.

I did catch the first half of the England-Sweden game. Yep, Rooney was worth waiting for to watch. He didn't score but he gave Sweden fits.

The Lakers won. I mean, the Miami Heat won. I get confused between Shaq and Kobe to Shaq and Wade.

The U.S. really needs to win and win big against Ghana. Funny thing is that Ghana is no guaranteed pushover. This has been a great World Cup. Brazil didn't destroy Australia though they did win. I think Brazil can be upset. And Korea - WOW!

I've been having a commentary dispute with Little Miss Attilla about Osama Bin Laden HERE. Simply put. She's comfortable with Bush bailing on the chase after Osama. I say, finish the job that he said he would. You can ignore the secondary thread running through it. Really.

Ghana just upset the Czech Republic in the World Cup. That opens up the group, meaning if the U.S. beats Italy and Ghana they advance. If Ghana beats the U.S. Ghana advances. Every game counts now and it just made the World Cup more tense. Hopefully the U.S. can beat Italy. They've never done so before and now would be a great time.

The kids are holding a yard sale but with little luck. hey started too late and, frankly, it's just too damn hot. I'll take them out for ice cream - not dots! - and maybe a movie. That'll be my nice Father's Day, more time with varmints.

The dots tend to clump together and to unclump them results in dots flying all over the place and then quickly melting. The dots are also kept colder than normal ice cream and can "burn" you tongue. But the most important test, and where these critters fail, is taste. I had chocolate-flavored dots. Yes, there was a chocolate-flavor but it wasn't chocolate "wow!" or even chocolate "yum!". It was "chocolate?" For the money, I'd much, much, MUCH rather have a scoop of Baskin-Robbins, Ben & Jerry's, or - YES!!! - Double Rainbow Ultra Chocolate over the dots. Save your money.

The bus drivers have taken to slowing as they approach intersections and honking like crazy. Still it hasn't stopped some distracted nimrods from nearly getting creamed by the busses.

I thought that was the worst thing that could happen on the Metro. Yesterday, I was proven wrong. On the Red Line - the underground portion of the Metro - I was treated to a nice female gang fight. These two girls were duking it out with their respective "homies" egging them on. Funny thing was that there was no Sheriffs around. Usually they are pervasive but not this time. ANd some of the Metro workers seemed to wiisely disappear.

But no blood, no deaths just a worry on the Mahatmas part that this incident could grow. With summer coming and all the schools out, I hope the Police beef things up a bit. We have enough violence.

Bush rejects calls for pullout from Iraq

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON -
President Bush, just back from Iraq, dismissed calls for a U.S. withdrawal as 
election-year politics and refused to give a timetable or benchmark for success 
that would allow troops to come home.

"It's bad policy," Bush said in a Rose Garden news conference Wednesday, 
about six hours after he returned from Iraq. "I know it may sound good 
politically. It will endanger our country to pull out of Iraq before we accomplish 
the mission."

Bush reviews Iraq plan, says oil is key

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

CAMP DAVID, Md. -
President Bush began a two-day strategy session on Iraq at Camp David on 
Monday, saying Iraq's neighbors should be doing more to help and suggesting 
the nation's vast supply of oil could be a way of reuniting the country. 

Pity that Ghana couldn't keep the ball lower in their bursts of offense against Italy. They sure had some nasty looking shots. Still, it was a fun match. And I thought this morning when I flicked on Australia-Japan that Japan had it in hand. Pity that I had to go to work. I'd loved to have seen the massive Australian comeback.

Tomorrow: Brazil. Nuff said.

At work, even though I've been there for a month, I still feel like I'm working stupid. There's still so much to learn and so little documentation or people to help. You'd think it'd be job security but it's more insecurity. I'm afraid to run analyses because I have nothing to compare against and mistakes can only be "learning mistakes" for so long. I need more chocolate.

We visited en famille the livestock and imagined what it woukld be like to live on a farm and whether we could live off the land. The idea though of raising critters knowing eventually we'd eat them kept us realistic. But who knows, maybe one day the Mahatmas will be on our own Green Acres instead of the Valley.

We spent three hours total at the Fair and it was fun. The wuestion was whether it was worth it. We easily broke triple digits between entrance costs, wristbands, and food. Looking at the sunburnt faces of the kids and having them quietly shlep around at home from the near heat exhaustion, yeah, it was worth it. Peace has returned.

But with that book done I've started in on Black Dahlia Avenger. I had read Severed and was gruesomely fascinated. I picked up BD Avenger at an outlet bookstore. What the heck. So far it's holding my interest but the problem is that this book proves one guy (father of the author) did it while Severed proves it was someone else. Who's right?

What to do tomorrow...maybe we'll go to the San Fernando Valley Fair. It's not the L. A. County Fair but a small and manageable endeavour. If it's not blazing hot tomorrow it'll be perfect. Maybe even get in some horseback riding.

And I'm still rooting for England just because and for the Netherlands. I've always wanted to live in the Ntherlands so here's to my adopted other home. (insert virtual beer here).

Realistically though, can anyone stop Brazil other than self-implosion on their part?

Well, my wife - bless her! - decided to copy it and she succeeded. So come summertime when we want something cool yet filling and relatively healthy, we break out the potato salad. Assuming I haven't demolished it already.

Kubuntu Upgrade
As some of you may remember I had an old computer (1 ghz) sitting around taking space so I wiped out Windoze 98 and installed Kubuntu, which is simply Ubuntu but using KDE instead of Gnome as its manager. Well, Kubuntu got upgraded this past week and I made the executive decision to go for it. Sunday morning, I booted the computer and - lo and behold! - it told me that a new version was available. So I started the process and away it downloaded.

Sure, it took five hours to download and install everything but it was one smooth process. So smooth in that there was only one, count them Microsoft, ONE reboot at the very end. I didn't lose any data not that I had any to lose and everything works well. There was only one minor glitch with the upgrade in that the old system would shut off my computer on a shutdown and this version doesn't, it justs halts everything. I thought I had found the solution when I found the SHutdown options and add a "-p" to the the Halt command but it didn't shut off my computer. I'll find it though unless someone tells me first (hint, hint).

But, to summarize, the upgrade was painless, the price was perfect (free!), and the OS is stable. installed Kubuntu r00l3z!

al-Zarqawi Dead
I'm surprised that Bush is on TV 24/7 gloating "Mission accomplished!" about the death of al-Zarqawi. Humility is not Bush's style but maybe the Admin is getting wise to the fact that most Americans don't give a flying anymore about Iraq or any of that "War on Terrorism" we're so embroiled in.

Fact is, Bush *STILL* hasn't done jack about getting bin Laden despite all of the proclamations against terrorism. Not only is bin Laden still loose somewhere but the Taliban are making a comeback in Afghanistan. Mission not done there.

As for al-Zarqawi, had anyone outside of the snoops heard of this guy before the invasion or Iraq? Nope. Not until after we invaded and gotten stuck in the mire did he start up. Arguably, Bush made him what he was by giving him the opportunity to ply the bomb trade using our kids as targets.

And as for the "War on Terrorism", forget it. It can't be won or lost. It's not a military thing either. It's a cultural thing and unless we want to do a little bout of genocide the "terrorists" can't and won't be eliminated. Keeping our troops in Iraq won't help matters either. Somehow making Iraq stable isn't going to, miraculously, make the world free of terrorists. We'll just have a change of venue and even then there's no guarantee that Iraq will stay stable or remain free of the bad guys.

But give Bush a brownie point for not saying something stupid about al-Zarqawi...yet.

Once summer ends and school starts, I'll have one in Middle School and two in Elementary. That translates to, again, getting to work late, staying late, and coming home late. In all, less family time.

I'll admit I like time away from the family but only when it's voluntary, like when I'm on a trip with my friends. I don't like wasting 15 hours per week in commuting topped off with forty hours of work.

I could work part-time but as a Mid-level Professional it is near career suicide to work part-time. I could work from home but I'd still have the horrible commute the other days.

And so I need a new job, something much closer to home. Any one need a data jockey?

On my daily Metro rides I figured about 25% of the people are "Learying" with their iPods or cellphones. They can't be bothered or put another way "when the buds are in, the bud is out". I saw quite a few people fondling their cellphones, flipping them open and shut, or playing with the buttons but fiddling nonetheless like the phone were electronic rosary beads.

My kids want cellphones and iPods but no way. Although the case can be made that phones are great for emergencies the case can also be made that there are plenty of responsible adults with cellphones around them at all times. They don't need to be tethered electronically and we don't need the hassle of lost or broken phones. When they can demonstrate that they can take care of breakable things for more than a month then we'll talk.

More importantly I don't want them used to phoning their friends every second. They can visit them in person, learn some social graces instead of fon3sp3ak. The phone should be for planning to get together with friends, especially considering they're all in the neighborhood. No lazy kids mine!

Yeah, arguably electronics are ruining America - movies, music, ebooks, pcs, consoles. We've lost something social. Pity.

Alright kids, your turn on the computer...I'm done.

Now that the temperature broke how about a break in the damn humidity...

Shaq or Dirk? I have to still go with Shaq and Miami, if anything, because Mark Cuban is such a putz. Of course, if I had his money I'd be a putz too.

My kids can smell the end of the school session. They're getting restless. With just starting a new job I doubt I'll be able to take off for our usual week-long family vacation. But I've got to do something even if it's unpaid vacation.

There is another Valley Produce-type place in Sun Valley called, of course, Sun Valley Produce. It too is recommended.

We solved our banana problem but the heat is still hitting us. We woke up at 5 covered in sweat then passed out for another 3 hours. We've pretty much sequestered ourselves inside with the air conditioner going full blast. But the heat is still there. Even with the AC you can feel the invisible arms or heat around you softly squeezing.

I do not look forward to tomorrow going to work in this heat.

But it does get nice around 7 at night when the cooling off starts. The air gets a special sweetness perhaps from the jasmine and you can breathe again. But is it worth an hour or two of paradise for nine hours of heat exhaustion?

I can tell it's been a bad week because we have no bananas. We haven't had the energy to shop because of the damn heat. When my wife picks up the kids, instead of hitting the grocery store they go home and straight into the pool. I'm guilty too. When I finally finish my Metro maze of commuting and reach my car, I could on my drive across the Valley stop at a store but my thoughts are on (1) getting nearly naked as quick as possible; and (b) sleep. Food doesn't even rank in that list.

So Saturday comes with blast furnace termperatures and we have no bananas. Maybe when it cools off later we'll go shopping. Maybe.

Coming home on the Metro we nearly had another accident. This time it was a man who decided to cross the street even though there was a multi-ton bus blazing towards him with horn a-honking. What's unbelievable is that the view of the bus route at this particular intersection has visibility for about a half mile in either direction. If man had only looked he would have seen the bus; he couldn't have missed it. But, for whatever reason, he decided to cross. Luckily some lady literally grabbed his shirt and pulled him over to safety, thereby dealing the Law of Survival a temporary setback.

But no gripes. No rants about Bush. No rants about bills. I'm just going to enjoy the sticky, sultry night with the sounds of crickets and screaming kids. Aaaah!