Be Careful When Searching for New Business Models

Someone called a few weeks ago to ask my opinion of his thoughts on becoming a Legal Document Assistant after he was laid off in his job as an engineer.  I wrote back offering the honest truth, "I wouldn't recommend this field to anyone right now.  It's a waste of time and money in this economy."  I hope the guy appreciates I potentially saved him a lot of time and money with such advice but I never heard back.   I'm sure he was disappointed.  We're all looking for ways to overcome the current economic situation. 

I thought I'd take this opportunity to offer the reason why I started a legal services business and why people should invest more time and research than I did prior to investing time and money into a new business model.   After a year, my business model is clearly a case for the best selling book Rework.

Here's my little business start-up story I hope some find helpful:

When I first considered opening my business At Your Service Legal Document Prep (AYSLDP) as a registered Legal Document Assistant it seemed the logical thing to do.  For those unaware, LDA's formerly were referred to as independent paralegals. A law in the 90's changed the profession by separating paralegals, those under the supervision of attorneys, from LDA's who are really glorified typists of self-represented people's legal forms. What I later learned was that being an LDA was a lot more complicated than just typing forms since the work involved far more legal skills and knowledge than I initially thought. 

After working 10 years at law firms as a legal word processor I thought it would be a breeze typing legal forms for people.  After investing $4,200 in a nationally accredited paralegal certificate program from National Paralegal College, I obtained a paralegal certificate. The logical progression seemed for me to begin a business helping self-represented people.

David vs. Goliath - Most Attorneys Are a Pain in the Ass as a Nuisance & Plague on Society

My vision for my business involved a form of social conscious evolution in offering an alternative to high lawyer's fees for people who really couldn't afford them for non-complex legal issues.  I've been ripped off several times by attorneys in my life, and most all of them were much like parasites sniffing for easy money who performed very little work.  In many cases attorneys are nothing more than glorified criminal pundits for a criminal syndicate government overseen by many corrupt judges.  Such is why as a whole I hate these lawyer parasites who drain wealth from Americans as a whole.  I thought I could somehow help to begin to turn the tide. Here's what I learned.

I Learned the San Francisco Superior Court Is a Fine Tuned Money Making Machine Under The Careful Watch of Its Overseers
For the past year since I began helping the public as an LDA I learned the San Francisco Superior Court and city is hostile to my profession.  San Francisco is one of the few cities that has a strong self-help center where government uses tax payer's money to help people fill out their legal forms.  The San Francisco Superior Court has preempted Legal Document Assistants by offering free services for low income people to fill out their divorce forms and restraining order cases.  What this means is when an LDA turns in their work on behalf of their clients, the San Francisco Superior Court can play politics and throw anything out they wouldn't otherwise do.


This kind of highly political court system protective of its own interests potentially places my clients at a disadvantage.  For instance, judges and court clerks often make note of who prepared a pro se's divorce documents.  LDA's must stamp their work for the court to see.  The judge and clerks can potentially ask, "why wasn't it prepared by the court's self-help center?" This question is where the barrier to an LDA first begins.  The court wants low income people to use their tax funded self-help center to keep everything under the court's watch and umbrella.  If people don't use the city's self-help center, the government would revoke funding and that would put people out of jobs.

When it finally dawned on me how aware the court system is of the potential threat of LDA's to their tax payer funded self-help center, I realized it's practically a rigged game.  Everything is so under the careful watch of those who monitor their well oiled money making machine!  (See post New Evidence of San Francisco Superior Court Corruption) Their court system is what a doctor is to a patient, and its overseers are always looking for ways to feed and keep it alive in these poor economic times. I personally don't want to experiment and observe any damage a politically influenced court would have over my client's divorce case.  I've already taken a couple blows from this court personally based on attorney mischief and that's enough of an indicator for me the court makes decisions based on politics whenever possible.  In other words, the court acts only in its best interests and on behalf of its local legal community as its overlord.

Breaking Even Working One's Ass Off Just Doesn't Cut It

In September, 2010, I attended the California Association of Legal Document Assistant (CALDA) conference at Pacific Grove, CA where I stayed at the infamous Asilomar Conference Center.  At the conference I spoke with some of the best LDA's in the business.  There I learned word-of-mouth that business was way down for some due to the economy.  One long time LDA who specialized in divorces even concentrated on a new business after her's dropped off by 70%.  Another LDA in Los Angeles only broke even in his second year of business who works very hard on living trusts for people.  He's about to take the State Bar and get out of the work.

Paralegals Are Infringing on the LDA Profession as Noted on Craigslist

I also noted the lack of regulation and oversight of paralegals (not LDA's) in advertising on Craigslist taking business away from registered LDA's.  Nothing's being done about it.  If I'm required to follow the laws that limit my earning potential, only for paralegals who work for attorneys to have a part time business doing my kind of work, it's obvious this LDA work in San Francisco isn't a good business model.  The only LDA's doing good business are those well established in divorces.  Divorces are a goldmine for some well established LDA businesses.  Some LDA's have said it takes 3-5 years to build a long term profitable business in this field. No thanks!




Rework author Jason Fried gives his presentation on why the office is the worst place to work.  This is true, but make sure to choose the right business model prior to leaving a well paying office job.

Time For a Rework - Throwing It In the Trash Can

In retrospect, my business should have been more carefully evaluated on paper, then into the trash can as a bad idea.  Regardless, I don't regret being an LDA, it was an experience I learned from.  I met a few nice people and saved one mother thousands of dollars by filing a default divorce for her for $300.  What clearly drove me to this work was my dread of attorneys and motivation to help people save money from attorney fees.

My LDA registration expires in March, 2011. I have no plans to renew it.  Until such time, I'm currently accepting only limited cases in this work such as for deed transfers or retrieving public court records for people out of state.  I'm currently working on my final divorce case.

• Why the Office Is the Worst Place to Work - CNN

Law Student Writes Death Threat Note to Imaginary Lunch Bag Thief

I just couldn't resist posting this hilarious story about a Boston University Law School student who became enraged when he believed someone was stealing his lunch out of the campus refrigerator.  His note was posted on the Above The Law blog a few days ago.  What a way to begin one's career!

The mark of a future litigation attorney who feels victimized imagining a guilty party while litigating based on delusions.  (Click to enlarge)

After litigating his intentions in a note to the thief, Frank asked to check the video records of the campus refrigerator area.  What he discovered were the janitors were removing his old moldy lunches he left too long in the refrigerator.  The law school posted on the refrigerators they'd be cleaned out every Friday.  As Above the Law blog stated:

Dude, you’re not being victimized by some asshole who steals lunches. You’re the a**hole who is leaving your lunch around too long and fouling up the community refrigerator.

I will now wait patiently until Frank sends me pictures of himself kicking his own ass. - Source

This is a good example of the delusional nature of a law student and how lawyers, who often live inside their heads, take out their personal frustrations on victims in their briefs with baseless imaginary and/or fabricated and/or exaggerated accusations.


I thought I'd add a few more similar related notes of others - Here's one from a lady who believes she has a peeping Tom neighbor:

Response:

• BU Law Student Threatens Beatings and Death to (Non-Existent) Lunch Thief

Royal Bubble World of Prince Charles Popped By UK Student Furor

Living in a royal bubble world, the royal couple is shocked after they had the audacity to drive their Rolls Royce through a major UK student uprising over inflated college expenses.

 Video of the royal attack

Imagine how out of touch with your people you'd have to be to have your Rolls Royce driven through a major student riot on the way to some snobby royal performance event?  These students in this video are shouting "tory scum" and "off with their heads!".  According to reports and photos, their royal highness scum were shocked and drop jawed over the incident.  Imagine the nerve these royal people have to do such a thing.  What did they expect, to be applauded and bowed to?

Camilla was prodded in the ribs with a stick through the open window of their Rolls Royce as she and Charles were driven to the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium.

One of the vintage car's windows was left open by mistake before the vehicle was surrounded by a snarling mob of rioting students and activists.

The car was kicked, rocked and hit with paint bombs as up to 20 demonstrators attacked it and chanted 'Off with their heads!' and 'Tory scum', leaving the couple visibly shaken.

One thug managed to lean into the car through the window nearest to Camilla, who was left terrified by the biggest Royal security lapse in a generation.  - Source - Slate.com

That was a dumb thing for the royals to do.  One could even say they clearly lack common sense.

• Prince Charles and Camilla Assaulted and/or Menaced and/or Inconvenienced by Teeming (Yet Invisible?) Mob - Slate.com

Singers Be Afraid, Very Afraid of Holographic Vocaloids!

Just when you thought outsourcing might have reached its peak, here comes a new wave of technology to take more jobs.  After the successful introduction in Japan of holographic vocaloid performers, aspiring future singer and dance performers should be freaking out everywhere.

Just as many pianists who played gigs in hotel bar lounges lost their jobs to technology with self-playing pianos, who needs singers when people will pay real money to go to concerts and be entertained by holographic 3D performers?  Japan is going wild for its vocaloid performers and many countries want a worldwide tour.

Japan has successfully launched the first vocaloid concerts.

I must be honest, I never thought something so ridiculous as this soulless, spiritless machine projection performance would cause such excitement and enjoyment as it apparently does.  The concerts in Japan have been sold out!  Who needs real singers when people are willing to pay hard cash for a 3D cartoon performance?  There would be limited overhead of replacing the performer's million dollar contract with low cost computer programming.  

I hate to break it to the audience but in reality what they're really watching is math formulas playing out from a computer. It's all pure math.  As people become more open to androids, robots and artificial intelligence I sense there's a certain danger up ahead.  Human beings may become disposable, replaceable as machines take our jobs in all aspects of life.  I recall the Wired Magazine article in 1999, Why the Future Doesn't Need Us. (PDF download)  Well, here's hard evidence humans are gradually being phased out of everything.  

• Forget Robots.  Holographic Rock Stars Are Where the Creepy is At

God Help Us! Narcissistic Personality Disorder Removed as Mental Disorder by American Psychiatric Association

I'm still waiting on any response from the author Anna Valerious of a popular blog Narcissists Suck over my email disclosure the American Psychiatric Association has decided to remove Narcissist Personality Disorder as a mental disorder from its disorders index.  The prolific NPD blogger retired her blogging a while back but occasionally provides book reviews, the last being in January, 2010 on The Narcissism Epidemic.

On November 29, 2010, the New York Times published its article Narcissism No Longer a Psychiatric Disorder - A Fate That Narcissists will Hate: Being Ignored rehashing what N.P.D used to be.

The central requirement for N.P.D. is a special kind of self-absorption: a grandiose sense of self, a serious miscalculation of one’s abilities and potential that is often accompanied by fantasies of greatness. It is the difference between two high school baseball players of moderate ability: one is absolutely convinced he’ll be a major-league player, the other is hoping for a college scholarship.

The second requirement for N.P.D.: since the narcissist is so convinced of his high station (most are men), he automatically expects that others will recognize his superior qualities and will tell him so. This is often referred to as “mirroring.” It’s not enough that he knows he’s great. Others must confirm it as well, and they must do so in the spirit of “vote early, and vote often.”

Finally, the narcissist, who longs for the approval and admiration of others, is often clueless about how things look from someone else’s perspective. Narcissists are very sensitive to being overlooked or slighted in the smallest fashion, but they often fail to recognize when they are doing it to others.

Hmmm, sounds familiar (see www.smbtech.com/ed)  Perhaps the aforementioned NPD attributes are too widespread in this day and age for the APA to consider abnormal.  Like court cases that set legal precedent, perhaps the APA is denoting how common NPD has become with all the social media Internet activities and crazy politicians.  Like homosexuality which was removed from the APA's mental disorders index decades ago, the commonality of the alleged abnormal symptoms have made it "normal" in many doctors eyes.  I never believed homosexuality was a mental disorder to begin with but I may have had I grown up in a different time period of history.  God help us!  Victims of NPD's go through an enormous amount of personal damage that could now be delegated to being "just their imaginations".

When there's no such thing as NPD, our society will suffer for failing to recognize how destructive the disorder can be, especially when superficial politicians aspire to high positions in government.

A recent article from the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog Why Narcissism Defines Our Time supports my view NPD is so widespread it has become the norm.

Most troubling about not including NPD as a personality disorder is that there is evidence of narcissism in all of our social lives. It’s alarming that in an age when narcissism is so evident, and with new ways for narcissists to get attention so apparent, that it would not be considered a personality disorder. The new world of democratic celebrities—on Facebook, reality TV and Twitter—where there are fewer traditional constraints on runaway narcissism, demonstrates the need to take this personality disorder seriously. -WSJ Speakeasy blog

The APA decision has its critics and many are complaining:

One of the sharpest critics of the DSM committee on personality disorders is a Harvard psychiatrist, Dr. John Gunderson, an old lion in the field of personality disorders and the person who led the personality disorders committee for the current manual.

Asked what he thought about the elimination of narcissistic personality disorder, he said it showed how “unenlightened” the personality disorders committee is.

“They have little appreciation for the damage they could be doing.” He said the diagnosis is important in terms of organizing and planning treatment.

“It’s draconian,” he said of the decision, “and the first of its kind, I think, that half of a group of disorders are eliminated by committee.”  - Article Source       

I guess this means we're supposed to ignore people whom we believe have NPD who endlessly torment and humiliate us as a form of their own self gratification.   Oh . . .

• Narcissism No Longer a Mental Disorder According to APA - New York Times
• Why Narcissism Defines Our Time WSJ

U.S. Banks Are Virtual Pirates on the High Seas of America

I thought a story on mortgage fraud would be appropriate today since the largest bank in the United States, Bank of America, has agreed to pay $140 million after a government probe.  BofA pleaded guilty to being involved in conspiracies to rig bids on the contracts over U.S. bonds.

"The US Department of Justice says Bank of America employees were involved in illegal conduct including a conspiracy to rig bids on investments linked to municipal bonds." - Bank of America Admits Fraud

I've been noticing on various message boards there are many people who still take the position in defense of banks as if Americans who obtained mortgages are the perpetrators of crime and deserve to be foreclosed upon.  The general perception of these people is the borrowers shouldn't have taken out a mortgage for a home they couldn't afford.   The reality is few people can really afford any home these days because few know what the future holds for their jobs in the shaky U.S. economy.

People who think the banking crises in America is due to those who took advantage of banks are ignorant of the facts, probably the types who always believe anything they're told by authority figures.  The reality is the banks made a killing during the real estate boom by reselling the borrower's mortgages in the derivatives market. The reason banks offered easy no question home loans is they could actually make more money on the derivatives market.  Banks also coordinated inflated appraisals of properties in order to make it appear the property assets on their books were higher then they actually were.

I've spoken with a few intelligent educated people who truly believe it's the borrower's own fault and that banks are the victim of spoiled Americans.  "They should have known they couldn't afford the home, now I the taxpayer have to bail out these people" is the common belief.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  A couple years ago when an attorney at the law firm of Chapman & Cutler in San Francisco expressed this attitude to me, I had no rhetorical response.  Today it's very easy to denote evidence that the profitable derivatives market is why banks provided easy no question loans to people.

Banks do a fantastic job in their marketing materials making you feel like they're your pal giving you a nice shiny personalized debit and/or credit card.  Bank employees tend to be very nice and friendly too.  The sad thing is, bankers who run these institutions that employs friendly people are neither your friend nor my friend. These banks took 2.2 trillion dollars from U.S. taxpayers holding our country hostage claiming the market and economy was going to crash in 2008.  They've got their little pundits all over the country claiming it's all Americans fault for purchasing homes they couldn't afford.  The bottom line is, this is a rigged game.  The banks knew what they were doing and what the outcome would be from the outset.

“This ongoing investigation has helped to expose wide-spread corruption in the municipal reinvestment industry,” Robert Khuzami, director of the S.E.C.’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement. “The conduct was egregious — in return for business, the company repeatedly paid undisclosed gratuitous payments and kickbacks and affirmatively misrepresented that the bidding process was proper.” - New York Times

Thousands of Americans have since lost their homes and the "ships are abandoned" so to speak, the work of pirates on the high seas of the real estate market.

Unfortunate Error by Bank and a Home is Gone - MSNBC.com

Embezzlers Who Couldn't Wait to Win the Lotto

I try to keep up with the latest embezzler stories posted on Fraud Talk Blog but there are so many of them I must say I'm very shocked.  Apparently these folks lost patience waiting for their winning lotto ticket numbers.

Florida Woman Indicted In Alleged $113 Million Ponzi Scheme Case

Lydia I. Cladek, 66, of St. Augustine, Florida, has been indicted on charges she bilked investors out of more than $113 million. Cladek, the owner and principal of investment firm Lydia Cladek, Inc., is alleged to have used investment funds to purchase high interest auto loans, then issued promissory notes secured by the vehicles, and used the proceeds to enrich herself and pay off earlier investors. Cladek reportedly was guaranteeing investors a return of up to 20 percent per year in the scheme. The 14 count indictment charges Cladek with wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. -Article link

Former Executive Of Virginia Company Sentenced To 5 Years For $580K Misappropriation

Iraj "Roger" Ahmadian, 54, of Williamsburg, Virginia and Memphis, Tennessee, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for misappropriating nearly $580,000 from Dillon Stone Corporation where he had been employed as Executive Vice President. According to authorities, Ahmadian received additional unauthorized paychecks and caused checks to be issued to fictitious subcontractor he created known as Phoenix Tile for his own benefit. The scheme spanned approximately four years, from 2003 to 2007. Ahmadian, who was indicted in February 2010 on 20 counts, plead guilty earlier this year to one felony count of bank fraud and one felony count of tax evasion.

New York Man Charged With Embezzling $4.5 Million From Columbia University  George Castro, 48, of the Bronx, New York, has been arrested and charged with misappropriating some $4.4 million from Columbia University. According to authorities, Castro added a TD Bank account he controlled to Columbia's authorized electronic payment system and received $3.4 million in October and another $1 million in November. His relationship with the university is unclear at this time. However, the account he controlled was under the name IT Security Solutions LLC.  Article Link

Calfornia Woman Admits To $116K Embezzlement

April G. Hale, 38, formerly of Windsor, California, pleaded no contest to charges she embezzled some $116,000 from the Law Offices of Michael A. Villa (pictured at right) where she had been employed as the firm's bookkeeper/office manager. According to reports, Hale made electronic funds transfers to pay for personal expenses such as credit card bills, utility bills and the like. Attorney Villa claimed Hale supported a "lavish lifestyle" through the thefts from his firm. Hale pleaded no-contest to six felonies including one count of grand theft and five of identity theft. She was originally charged in June on 41 felony counts and is scheduled to be sentenced on January 31, 2011. Article link

Former Finance Director for Texas School District Charged With Embezzling $111K

Sylvia Yvonne Ruiz, 58, of Hidalgo County, Texas, was arrested yesterday and charged with embezzling $111,100 in tuition fees from the Hidalgo Independent School District where she had served as finance director. Authorities have not released the details in the case yet, but Ruiz is alleged to have misappropriated the funds between August 2009 and January 2010. Ruiz, who apparently took tuition receipts for herself instead of depositing them for the school district, has been charged with Theft By Public Servant. Article link

Former Non-Profit Exec From Texas Sentenced For $390K Embezzlement Scheme

Michael Woodson Burney, 54, of Midland, Texas, was sentenced to two consecutive terms totalling 51 months in prison for embezzling more than $390,000 from Camp Fire USA where he had served as executive director. According to authorities, beginning in June 2007 through November 2009, Burney wrote numerous checks from the non-profit's accounts to himself to support a gambling habit forging the signature of two board members. He had plead guilty in August after being indicted in July to one count of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Burney was also ordered to pay full restitution to Camp Fire USA and its insurer.  Article link


There's plenty more at the Fraud Talk Blog

Best TSA Groping Parody Videos

SNL skit

Makes me wish I learned piano when I was young

This reminds me of one of those home studio novelty 1970's pop song productions

The Who Music to Pat Down By

Sign Petition: www.BoycottAirTravel.com

Gulf of Mexico Dying Confirmed By Concerned Citizens for Florida

After the BP oil spill disaster Concerned Citizens of Florida (CCF), a large group consisting of scientists and engineer citizen activists, came together to get to the bottom of the extent of damage done to the Gulf of Mexico. 

CCF conducted the Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference (International Citizens' Initiative) for the past seven months to obtain photos and examine evidence of the BP oil spill disaster.  The group has a blog Phoenix Rising From the Gulf which has been documenting the disaster outside the corporate media and BP spin machine.  

After reading through CCF's findings and other articles, I'm confident this Florida citizens group is trustworthy and the best source of REAL information we will ever have on the disaster and what it means to the future of our oceans and planet.

On December 1, 2010 the CCF has released its investigative findings in a special report entitled The Gulf of Mexico is Dying - A Special Report on the BP Oil Spill.   CCF member Dr. Tom Termotto opened the report with:

It is with deep regret that we publish this report.  We do not take this responsibility lightly, as the consequences of the following observations are of such great import and have such far-reaching ramifications for the entire planet.  Truly, the fate of the oceans of the world hangs in the balance, as does the future of humankind - Dr. Tom Termotto, The Gulf of Mexico is Dying - A Special Report on BP Oil Spill

Since I'm such a lay person at reading this report. I feel only comfortable with quoting from the sections of the report that I could really understand, and that how extremely serious and catastrophic the information is to the future of humanity.

After conducting the Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference for over seven months, we can now disseminate the following information with the authority and confidence of those who have thoroughly investigated a crime scene.  There are many research articles, investigative reports and penetrating exposes archived at the following website.  Particularly those posted from August through November provide a unique body of evidence, many with compelling photo-documentaries, which portray the true state of affairs at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

It’s not a pretty picture.

The various pictures, photos and diagrams that fill the many articles at the aforementioned website represent photo-evidence about the true state of affairs on the seafloor surrounding the Macondo Prospect in the Mississippi Canyon which is located in the Central Planning Area of the northern Gulf of Mexico.  The very dynamics of the dramatic changes and continuous evolution of the seafloor have been captured in ways that very few have ever seen.  These snapshots have given us a window of understanding into the true state of the underlying geological formations around the various wells drilled in the Macondo Prospect.

Although our many deductions may be difficult for the layperson to apprehend at first, to the trained eye these are but obvious conclusions which are simply the result of cause and effect.  In other words there is no dispute around the most serious geological changes which have occurred, and continue to occur, in the region around the Macondo wells.  The original predicament (an 87 day gushing well) was extremely serious, as grasped by the entire world, and the existing situation is only going to get progressively worse.

So, just what does this current picture look like.  Please click here to view the relevant diagrams and read the commentary.

Just how bad is this situation? There are actually three different ongoing disasters – each more grave and challenging than the previous one – which must be considered when assessing the awesome destruction to the GOM by the Oil & Gas Industry.

I.  A single gushing well at 70 – 100,000 barrels per day of hydrocarbon effluent for 87 days into the GOM at the Macondo Prospect along with two smaller rogue wells

II. Numerous leaks and seeps within five to ten square miles of the Macondo well with an aggregate outflow of an unknown amount of hydrocarbon effluent per day into the GOM

III.  Countless gushers and spills, leaks and seeps, throughout the Gulf of Mexico, where drilling has been conducted for many decades, with an aggregate outflow that can not even be estimated, but is well in excess of any guesstimate which would ensure the slow and steady demise of the GOM.

Because this is a long arduous report, I'm going to end here with the CCF's statement another report is following about other elements not addressed: 

ADDENDUM:
There are two very significant topics, which have been not been discussed in this report, that beg for acknowledgement and further attention in light of the title:

The Gulf of Mexico is Dying.
 
Both of these problems are highly consequential and therefore merit separate papers in order to give them the treatment they deserve, if we are to understand why the GOM is slowly dying.  Until those papers are completed, we offer the following short summaries:

#1  The wanton and indiscriminate use of the dispersant, Corexit, turned an extremely serious disaster into an unmitigated catastrophe.

#2  The deeper the geological source of the hydrocarbons, the more radioactive isotopes present in the oil and gas.

 

That hydrocarbons pulled from the bowels of the earth have a scientifically verified radioactive component(s) is the dirty little secret of the Oil & Gas Industry.  So secret in fact that, if it were to get out, this knowledge alone would seal the fate of the entire industry.

Did you see the "radioactive" part? These Florida citizens are brave indeed considering their lives are most likely threatened by Big Oil mafia men for releasing the truth to the world over what they've done in the Gulf of Mexico.

• The Gulf of Mexico is Dying
• Conclusive Evidence Macondo Well Casing Was Damaged By Gas Blowout on April 20th
• Extraordinary Double Standard: The US Federal Gov't Persecution of Fisherman vs. Kid-Glove treatment of Big Oil BP
• Clear Evidence that BP has Failed to Contain the Leaks at the Maconda Well Site

Gov't Wants To Stop Cell Phone Driving with Disabler Technology

I wish the U.S. government would get its nose out of everybody's life.  What a nuisance!  We the taxpayers elect them to represent us in our best interests and all they think of are crazy ways to control and herd us all like cattle.

When I learned from Discovery News yesterday the U.S. Department of Transportation is looking into technology to disable cell phones in vehicles, I thought first about the benefits of having access to mobile emergency communication devices.  Why is the government thinking of only the negative and not the positive things cell phones do for people in their vehicles?  For instance, what if a crazy man's following you one night, wouldn't it be nice to call for help? Or what if your vehicle breaks down in the middle of nowhere? 

In addition to its efforts to educate drivers about the dangers of distracted driving, the U.S. Department of Transportation is evaluating technology that would disable cell phones in automobiles. The move is a response to the growing number of deaths and injuries related to distracted driving.  Government Evaluating Cell Phone Disablers in Cars - Discovery News

So where's the govt's sound reasoning?  If people use hands free cell phone technology and are simply talking as if someone were in their vehicle, that's the same as conversing with another passenger.  I don't see the gov't logic, especially when the benefits of cell phone technology aren't apparently being considered.  It seems the gov't is looking for any way it can to get itself into our daily personal lives to control us. 

Cell Phone Technology Can Save & Protect Lives!

I remember way back in 1979 driving home from working late at the Marriott at LAX (Los Angeles Airport) and some strange old man in his car was trying to wave me down and pick up on me.  He began following and I managed to run inside a locked gate before he pulled into my driveway.  Had I not been so lucky, a cell phone would have come in handy.  Why isn't the gov't considering the good things cell phones can do as well?

Back in 1985 I was on the cutting edge of technology selling cell phones in Redondo Beach, California.  Back then, they were pretty cumbersome and often came with briefcases for vehicles.  I remember driving around thinking how cool having a portable phone was like I was in some James Bond spy movie.  I only sold the phones a few months but the owner of the cell phone store went on to become a millionaire.

Thirteen years later in 1997 I was still on the cutting edge with a far less cumbersome cell phone but I remember very few people had caught onto the cell phone craze yet.  In fact, it seemed just when people began to catch on in 2001, I became burnt out on carrying around a cell phone so I gave it up a few years. Today I find cell phone technology indespensible now that most everyone uses it.

It seems to me if the gov't really cared about people's safety and welfare, they'd make sure the electro mangetic energy from the cell phones isn't dangerous to our brains.  Seriously, it's possible cellphones are altering the neuro infrastructure of the human brain.  Frequent cell phone use over long periods of times could have dire consequences for us all.