September 10, 2003 - Wednesday

Excuse the early comic today.. I have a cold and I dunno if I'll be conscious later today.. I feel so groggy~ Today's comic is powered by our resident overwhelming evil, Sean! He scripted the next few comics. I hope it doesn't disgust anyone ^_^

[^Young^] - 12:00 AM PDT

With this whole RIAA sues a 12 year old girl stuff going on, especially after all my ponderings about my ticket, I can't help but wonder... Would it be legal for me to sue the US government for damages? I'm paying them a lot in taxes to make sure everything works well and it's their job to write the "laws" that everyone is supposed to know... and I dunno about you, but I've never sat around and read or took the time to understand the hundreds if not thousands of laws and subsections of California, let alone the US. Isn't it the job of the government to let us know what our right are and tell us what the laws are, not just punish us for them? You can't punish a kid for the death sentance 5 seconds after he's intentionally squished a snail because he "killed a living creature." You tell him it's wrong to kill and then you tell him not to do it again. This is, of course, the counter to "ignorance of the law is not an excuse" but why not? I mean, I'm only ignorant because I don't have the time to sit around and read and memorize laws all day. If the law makers really want to enforce laws on me, shouldn't they tell me what they are before they slap me with them? At what point does 'law' and 'living' diverge? The laws were to protect the way I live... but what happens when they don't? Just my thoughts.

[^Young^] - 12:00 AM PDT

killing snails isn't against the law, hence wouldn't be punishable by death. pesticide companies do it all the time. you can even buy their products at the local store that carries gardening supplies. (whether you think that's wrong or not, there are other standards--but mostly aren't punishable by death. such a law would be oxymoronic.) the whole point of codified law is that it's published so people can't justly claim ignorance for crimes committed. if you're going to do something that might be wrong, you can check to see if it's really illegal according to what's written. if it's there, then they thought of it before you did it or thought of it. (for accidents, there are less severe laws (*pfft*, like manslaughter vs murder), insurance, or see the part about licenses.) regarding ignorance due to young ages for committed crimes, that's why there's juvenile hall. trying a criminal as a child rather than as an adult yields different results. children are not held completely responsible for knowing the laws, but they still need to be punished after that first crime because--well, they took a life (maybe many) or destroyed property (maybe yours!). if adults were to claim ignorance of the laws, they are still responsible for abiding by all of them. they should've been around long enough to know--18 years typically is what distinguishes an adult from a child. if you don't know some, then there's a chance that others don't know as well, so it's a bit balanced. if you're caught, it's unfortunate, but then you learn. rather than thinking of the child and the snail, think of it this way: if people claimed ignorance for crimes, is it okay for people to do things like gun down lots of innocents in a "postal" situation or like the Columbine massacre because they think it looked like fun, so they didn't think it was wrong? is it okay for someone to take a military tank on a rampage thru a city because he didn't know a law pertained to it? (Well, at least you'll need a license, which means you understand and are responsible for knowing the laws. I could say the same for a drivers license. ^^;;; Also remember that holding a license is a priviledge, not a right. With priviledges come responsibilities.) lawmakers do tell you about upcoming laws before they're enforced--in the form of propositions that you can vote for or against. with regard to laws passed within the legislative branches, if you don't agree with what they pass, then you can vote them out of office. if you make the distinction between verbal and written, what's the difference? but think of it from a reasonable perspective: would you rather have a law written that breaking-and-entering is illegal and punishable, or would you prefer to stand outside your house all day and all night for the rest of your life telling every passerby that breaking into your house is wrong and that you wouldn't like it? okay, there's the other extreme regarding codified laws--that they could be posted on Alpha Centauri, but at our current technology level we could never get there to know about them, much less protest (from Douglas Adam's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"--okay, they were plans). ^_~ but the fault with that situation is that the people who made those plans/laws don't live on Earth. o.O (Don't think Sacramento or D.C. is impossible to get to. You can drive there, or the documents are now available via the internet, phone, library, etc.) laws aren't supposed to only protect the way *you* live, but the lives of everyone else in this country as well. if "the way you live" endangers the *lives of others*, then you are the assailant and they are more deserving of the protection than you. which is worse--drivers getting ticketted for not making a complete stop or children getting killed because those drivers were "in a hurry" or "couldn't be bothered to stop"? who deserves the protection--the adult riding inside the multi-ton metal machine who at worst might lose a couple hundred dollars, or a small child who doesn't know these things can kill at 5mph who at least would be hospitalized (several thousands in medical bills, debilitated for life, traumatized, etc), at worst killed? of course, it's not always so black and white and neither is this a perfect world. legal matters, spirit vs letter of the law, human subjectivity, lawyers make this all one big mess. that mess sometimes makes it better or easier to just avoid the possibility of getting into a tangle if you can. regarding ignorance, it is not a survival trait. if you play with a lion because it's fuzzy, can you complain after it eats you? what if the lion doesn't tell you that he's going to eat you? what if you've never seen a lion eat anyone else before? (i haven't.) what the RIAA is doing is just plain stupid... and what they're doing are lawsuits, not criminal procedings. they're trying to set the precedent so they can get their laws... but that's for another rant--not mine, however. u_u

[^A-sama^] - 1:16 AM PDT

Law's and government. Some of this treads one of those philosophical lines you never see in the sand. The whole, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" thing has always bugged me a little too. I can understand why it's true... "Officer? Oh! I didn't know it was illegal to stab this man to death, soak his body in gasoline, light it on fire and dance among the flames in the middle of the street, singing about why he severely irritated me. We did it all the time back where I'm from! But I'll make sure I don't do it again, since I know it's illegal now." Ahem... All hyperbole aside... One has a responsibility to the society one lives in to abide by the rules decided upon by the duly appointed authorities of that society. Part of that responsibility is being aware of those rules. On the other hand, you have to wonder, as Young said, how we're really supposed to know about every single law that's passed and applies to each of us personally. As far as I know, many, many laws are passed each year on the federal, state, county and city level. And for the most part they just add on to the laws that existed before. (Though occasionally, one law specifically nullifies another.) There are undoubtedly thousands and thousands of laws that I don't know about. Most of which I probably don't need to know about, but some of which might possibly affect me. I've never gotten anything in the mail from my government or any instruction during my numerous years in public school that informed me of even the most basic laws that applied to me. I've learned most of the laws that applied to me through the newspaper, and through other people. And I think that might be an important part of it. Society is made up of people. Those people often end up as your source of information about things that affect you. You ask a question about something or they mention something to you that they've read or heard and information trickles out and around to those who need it. A similar effect happens in the case of business and organizations (though a bit different). Gah.... I've typed too long and only managed to skim the surface of some of the stuff I was thinking. A stream of consciousness rant would have been easier to type but probably would have made less sense the garbage I've got up there already.

[^SEan^] - 1:22 AM PDT

Whoa, I seemed to open up a can of snails. ^_^ I was using the snails analogy of more moralistic "good vs. bad" law than human written law... since there are so many "laws" out there. If you think about it, there are only a handful of "laws"... things you _have_ to obey. Laws like... gravity. ^_^ Everything else is just social order... when a police officer says you have to stop... why would you have to? Just because he says so? Because he claims you are a threat? Yes, there's the arguement that I endanger others so yes, that's why the laws are written... but what happens when the law is written but doesn't apply? Of course, ignorance isn't going to help when you've stabbed someone in the face and lit them afire... but how about when you didn't fill in your out of state business license form and fill out the adjoining Schedule A and T in order to properly itemize the amount of taxes you were supposed to give to each district, depending on where your sales were made, assuming there are no deductions that were listen on the Form B lines 12-20? What? You didn't know you had to do that? Shame on you, you should have looked it up. ^_^ Some laws are written to protect myself from others and vice versa, that I'm not contesting. What worries me is when there are grey areas and people immediately "follow the law" because "it's the law" without any real thought. Back in Baltimore this year, when I was in the dealer room, it was 9:50 in the morning and dealer room was going to open in 10 minutes. If you haven't been to Otakon, then lemme explain the layout of the entrance to the dealer room. The entrance is also the exit. The entrance is on one side of the street, underground, connected by a stairway. The exit is on the other side of the street with a stairway up. Both stairways meet BEFORE you enter the dealer room. Theoretically, you can stand on either side and see the entrance/exit area. Anyway, I got into an arguement with security because I was trying to enter the exit at 9:50 in the morning. I kept trying to explain that I was a dealer and that the dealer room opened in 5 minutes and I didn't wanna go all the way across the street just to enter the "entrance". I could have literally gone through the entrance and looked out through the exit and waved at the security guards. Instead of giving some thought as to why that law was there, realizing I was a dealer and that was the dealer's room, and letting me go in, they decided to call 3 buff security guards to "guide" me to the entrance after a nice little shouting match of "because I said so." I'm not trying to get people to argue. I'm not trying to say laws are bad, down with government. I'm just saying... maybe laws shouldn't matter as much if everyone took responsiblity for themselves and really thought about things instead of saying "it's a law so I have to do it!"

[^Young^] - 2:01 AM PDT

snails aside... regarding "law of gravity", you're bringing up a semantic issue that is irrelevant. (if you're trying to illustrate your "have to" point, is there anywhere in my prior post that I said you "have to" obey laws? i even did a search for "must"--i don't see it. all i said was "responsible", and that does not imply "no choice" in any way.) however, you are right regarding abiding by laws. you do NOT need to. however, if you don't, you should be prepared to accept the consequences. you could fight those consequences, but do realize that fighting itself *is* a consequence that consumes time and resources. actually, now that i think about it, you don't "have to" obey gravity either. you can fight it as much as you like. just be prepared to find your face buried in the ground more than usual. ^_~ the police officer is attempting to enforce the laws that the society--consisting of people like you--have considered necessary to maintain social order. if social order breaks down, then there is no foundation nor *consistent* justification to maintain respect for other people. don't think that everyone is exactly like you, with the same opinions, experiences, abilities, strengths, mental conditions, etc. since there are so many people with so many different backgrounds, it is impossible for everyone to have the same respect for each other that you might have for them. without respect, there is danger--all the time. if there is danger all the time, all you can do is hunt and defend yourself--hence, no civilization. for laws, as strict and inhumanly explicit as they may seem, they offer the baseline for providing this respect. by "baseline", i mean *minimum*. juries and people of enforcement try to adhere to what they call "the spirit of the law" taking into account the situation, reason, and humanity with their interpretation. however, if it embroils into a senseless argument (like for instance, with pointless yelling), it falls back to this baseline. however, without such a baseline, there will never be a resolution, and pointless escalation can become explosive. unfortunately, people are stupid. on top of that, they are afraid. people of enforcement are given only the power to enforce, not think. in the particular situations you encountered, they were under even more pressure to not think. they were in situations where they were given specific orders, were supervised, and had to report back to superiors. if they let you go, they had to report it, along with *very* strong reasons, and suffer any consequences from their judgement. not many people who don't feel they've had enough experience in the field are comfortable to take such liberties. basically, *their* asses are on the line--not yours. arguing with them is pointless. what you should do is escalate: "what is your name? i wish to speak with your manager." that will get you better results. if they didn't have to report back to anyone (principal, head of security division)--say as a cop wandering his routine patrol or heading back from a shift, they might feel more inclined to let it slip with a warning. there's another reason why they might choose not to think: because smarter people might subvert thier thinking or dumber people might exhaust them at the beginning of a very very long day. in an ideal situation, they can give everyone the same undivided attention; however, they are human and have to deal with bad to nasty crap all day long. regarding the Schedules, I'm assuming you're talking about income tax? i believe the schedules are actually there to assist you in making the calculation. but as i understand it, you don't have to fill out those forms for itemization; you can just give them the final value that they ask for--be it a table or simpler calculation. sure, you might lose money that you might've saved by itemizing, but it's a tradeoff--time and frustration for money. as for the whole process, surely it's not for protection against bodily harm.... but economic harm... ...ah, yes. money is evil. those forms are not to protect *you* from financial harm, but to protect *those institutions*--the government. sales and income tax suck. no one wants to pay them since they earned that money. however, the government needs these funds to survive to continue governing. that's the price of living and doing business in this country. taxes are a gray area of opinion because although we do want our government to survive, we don't like they way they sometimes squand... err... spend that money. but if they didn't give you a form to calculate, then you wouldn't know how much you should give them. then they could sue you because you didn't give enough. but then you could counter saying that you didn't know because they didn't specify. but then they'd say that you didn't want to fill out these forms. do you see where this is going? they have to spell it out so stupid people aren't confused and smart people can't complain. (except now it's so complicated everyone is confused AND complains. blame it on the rich people so they can have their loopholes. o.O ) Shame on me? no, i take no shame for not knowing because i don't need to! i didn't choose to do business independently, so i didn't need to look it up. i always heard/knew managing a business can be a royal pain in the ass so i never take that "let's start a business!" idea lightly (like some people have). sure, it can be rewarding to some, but you need to decide if it's rewarding *enough* to deal with all that crap you must put up with. (if you think you'll just hire someone to deal with all that, then you should also be prepared to prosecute if they decide to run away--and start a business of their own, stealing your ideas. that's even more crap to deal with. >.< ) back to stupid people. you are correct in saying that laws shouldn't matter much if people took responsibility. but people are stupid and irresponsible, not always considering it worth their time to do it for you, sadly, so the easiest/quickest thing for them to do would be to follow the law. (there's also that fear factor... and endurance.) unfortunately, you have to make it worth their time by escalating and fighting (in that order)... or decide that it's not worth *your* time. It sucks, but that's what you get by living peacefully with so many people... -.- Gah... i'm falling asleep and... turning... dumb.

[^A-sama^] - 4:21 AM PDT

Whee! Let's add more to the sheer, nigh ridiculous length of this newspost! Law enforcement - People are always involved with this and people are fallable. The ideal is for them to enforce the spirit of the law. Often, as an excuse in laziness, a misunderstanding, sheer burearocracy or just plain being an @$$#0l3, only the letter of the law is upheld. Tax forms - These just get more and more complicated. Often needlessly so. I believe the amount of tax law more than doubled in the last decade. I think the IRS is actually trying to streamline it some since the sheer amount of legality involved could cause the universe to implode. Shame on you? - Uh, Young was only talking about if you were in your own business and had to fill out these forms. Obviously you don't have to do this if you aren't in your own business. On the other hand, I suppose you could anyway if your fond of that kind of pain... "What's gravity? The ground and I are just so much in love we just can't bear to be apart for too long."

[^SEan^] - 10:42 AM PDT

Actually, I thought the schedules were just worksheets too... especially since I only sold stuff in one district but it turns out they're mandatory unless you make no sales. So, I got a call up from an auditor who asked what district the money is supposed to go to and asked me to fill out the schedules next time. The whole point of this rant isn't to argue, though it seems like it's getting that way. I just wanted to raise the awareness of people's eyes. It's tiring to have to deal with stupid people, yes... but being in power, doesn't that mean you're supposed to be more powerful? If you're the one enforcing a law, human or not, shouldn't your tolerance for stupid people be higher, especially if you're going to pull the whole "I'm superior to you because I can dictate what you do." If a person is gonna train and work to try and tell other people what to do, I honestly have no sympathy for those who do it half-heartedly and just say "Because I said so." If another person wants to go out of their way to try and get me to do something because _they_ think it's _better_ than the way I think it is, they'd better do a whole lot more than just "it's the law" unless it's apparently obvious (knife in face, gasoline, body on fire) or it's a person I trust. Intimidation and threat doesn't work, at least not on me. Lawmakers make laws all the time that they think make the world _better_ (all encompassing, uniform)... but you know, last I checked, the laws aren't perfect either. I know I don't have any slaves and it's legal to buy and sell alcohol, and last I checked, women have rights.

[^Young^] - 11:50 AM PDT

I got dolls in the mail! woo!

[^Natsuki^] - 12:54 PM PDT

Oops... there's no delete, hmm? Gomen!

[^Louis^] - 9:12 PM PDT

System reset! Hmm, I guess I'll just make this even looonger. Funny, I didn't start down the philosophical slippery slope. So another Windows RPC exploit to patch! Posting early (hint Kingsley/Jon). It was only announced today, so, hmm, maybe a week till a new virus/worm comes around. RPC == Remote Procedure Call, so what this means is that the virus can exploit your computer remotely without your interaction... Just being on the network with port 135 means you're vulnerable, if you run Windows NT, XP, 2k, or 2003. Linux, Mac, and *old* Windows installations don't have anything to fear. Patch early and patch often!

[^Louis^] - 9:17 PM PDT

Thanks Louis. All patched up and ready to go. I was gonna contribute to the insight but then I was late for work. But now I'm back. This reminds me a lot when I was a security officer back at Raging Waters. Man was I a prick. Well, I did my best not to be but sometimes I had to be a prick to let people know about the rules and regulations of the park. There was this one incident where we had someone who had an injury on one of the slides and we had to seal off a section of the park to clear it so medics could come and retrieve the poor fella. I was place incharge letting people know that the area was closed off temporarily. So I stood there making sure that no one got through until the medics did their job and the area was safe. Under no circumstances was I to let anyone within the sectioned off area, not even where there were life jackets for kids. So then this kid walks up to me and asks if he could get a life jacket and I explained to him that the area was closed off and that he could go to another place nearby to pick up a life jacket. But then the kid got angry and kept on asking me for a life jacket but I had to refuse until the area was safe. Finally he gave up and took off. Then a few minutes later his dad who was about 6'3" and maybe 240 lbs. came up to me by his side. So I reasoned with him but he got angry too. I had to stay calm and stand my ground. Finally the medics were done and the area was safe and they got their life jackets. Uh...hmmm...what was my point here anyway? I guess I could've been less of a prick and took time to just give the kid a life jacket but then doing so might have jeporadized the situation and someone could've slipped into the area with out my noticing getting in the way of the medics. Plus I would've had to spend more time trying to find the right size life jacket for the kid. Also the kid maybe wasn't looking for a life jacket. Maybe he use that as an excuse to go on the slides that was closed off. But anyway, I had to be firm and a total prick that time. It wasn't nice. But no one got hurt or in the way and the guy who was injured on the slide got his medical attention. This was one of the reasons why I decided to start working the grave shift.

[^o0Kynger0o^] - 11:02 PM PDT

September 11, 2003 - Thursday

*ack ack ack!* Almost forgot! o.O Happy Birthday to Evi... err, i meant Sean! お誕生日おめでとうございま～す！ And this is what you get! XD I figured this'd make sense to you. Apologies to Ewen as I was uncreative and used the same image (except resized) for your card. This image copyrighted Genco, JCStaff, Azuma Kiyohiko, Dengenki Comics, Mediaworks, etc. etc. Hope you have fun mucking around today! ...oh, that might not be taken well today. ^_^;;; Well, at least I hope you have a good day! It'll be really hot today, huh? Damn heat wave strikens us starting today til Sunday. >.<

[^A-sama^] - 8:38 AM PDT

Omedeto tanjobi, Sean! You get a choice of gifts: Rollerblading and then dinner afterwards, or we go out to a nice dinner and skip rollerblading :)

[^Louis^] - 8:51 AM PDT

We, meaning his family, have him for dinner already. ^^ Happy Birthday, Sean! ^^

[^e^] - 9:09 AM PDT

Thanks everyone. Since I'm at work today, I'm free of heat strickening unless I go outside. Unfortunately it means I get to freeze my one year older cojones off since they crank the AC up in my area a little too much and my desk is under the vents.

[^SEan^] - 10:20 AM PDT

Happy (well chilled) Birthday!

[^Natsuki^] - 10:32 AM PDT

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