This is just nuts. As published in the Oakland Tribune, immigrant activists say police DUI checkpoints discriminate against those without licenses, particularly illegal aliens. What amazes me is that the Oakland police have actually stopped setting up these checkpoints purely because of these 'complaints'.

The checkpoints allow officers to check licenses and proof of insurance, and are an effective way to get drunken drivers off the roads, but the checkpoints also have caught dozens of illegal aliens who are obviously not licensed to drive, yet otherwise obey the law.

LOL! What part of 'illegal' do they not understand? If they happen to be illegal aliens, they are driving without a license or insurance as well, so what's the problem if they get caught? Since when does breaking one law make you automatically immune from other laws that every citizen of the USA has to adhere to? More from the article;

"These checkpoints make people's lives miserable, not make them safer," said Jesus Rodriguez of Oakland Community Organizations, which filed most of the complaints about the checkpoints.

Is this guy insane? Sorry buddy, but checkpoints aren't there to make life easier for those breaking the law and endangering others lives. Let's see how he feels about it when his family is wiped out by a drunk driver who would otherwise not have been on the roads. As far as uninsured drivers go, guess who ends up having to foot the bill if they get involved in an accident? Taxpayers - that means legal US citizens - the ones who also have to obey laws like having a license and insurance to drive, and not driving drunk.

The police apparently have stopped all checkpoints until they write up some new guidelines, so hey, if you live in Oakland and are drinking, I guess the message is to feel free to take a drive while you're at it because nobody is going to stop you, particularly if you're an illegal immigrant.

You might want to be sitting down for this next part. The new checkpoint guidelines, which are not final, may call for police to notify Latino community organizations of the time and location of coming checkpoints. Seriously. Now that is racial discrimination. Guess it pays to break the law huh?

While officers have some discretion, the cars of unlicensed drivers are usually towed. To get their cars back, owners must pay $125, plus any storage fees. That is a significant burden to many illegal immigrants, Rodriguez said.

Pretty simple - if you can't do the time / pay the fine, don't do the crime. Period. If a person is caught in any country illegally, they should be put on a plane and sent back to whatever country they came from at their expense - they're illegal immigrants, does nobody understand that? Of course if returning could endanger their life, that's a different story, which is why there's such a thing as political asylum, but that is not what we're talking about here. Grow some balls police Chief Richard Word, and tell this guy Rodriguez to go copulate with himself. If a legal citizen drives without a license or insurance, they have to pay fines and have their vehicle impounded, so why the hell should a felon be exempt? This is the most stupid thing I've heard so far this week (but heck, it's only Monday).

It's been a whole 12 days since I last had a cigarette. That's the longest I've gone without one for many years. I last had one on Tuesday September 14th (and I only had one smoke that entire day), which was the day I was sent to hospital. I've had some really strong cravings for a smoke but have managed to resist so far.

There is a full packet of smokes sitting here which I have not touched - I have come up with a theory that if I throw them out, part of me would think the only reason I haven't smoked is because I didn't have any cigarettes. I figure if I can resist the temptation, it's because of my own will, not just because I didn't have a choice. Seems to be working for me anyway - will power versus deprivation. We have nicotine patches and gum if it gets too hard, but I've managed to go without their assistance so far. Kinda stressed a little though.

I have not been a well Weasel. In my last entry I wrote that I was off to see my doctor which is exactly what I did. My doctor diagnosed me as having severe pneumonia (the other possibility was meningitis), and told me I had a temperature of 103 and needed to get to hospital immediately. He was going to call an ambulance for me from there, but since I don't have medical insurance I walked home from the doctor instead (just around the corner a bit) and then IceQueen called car service and we went to the hospital that way.

After I supplied a urine sample we waited for hours in the hospital 'workup' rooms, but then I started losing consciousness and I was rushed to the intensive care unit (or acute care, whatever). They took blood samples had hooked me into a couple of IV drips of saline and antibiotics and stuck monitors all over me with EKG machines etc, the whole nine yards. IceQueen's Dad turned up too and they were both obviously freaking when I went unconscious and went into ICU - I vaguely remember some bolshy nurse threatening to call security on them if they didn't stay out of the ICU, I'm so glad Ice was there though.

I lost consciousness again in ICU and apparently my blood pressure (which is normally slightly above normal) dropped dangerously low and the doctors decided to then run me through a bunch of tests to try and figure out what was really wrong, so off I went for a cat-scan and chest x-ray to see what was causing the headaches etc.

A little while later in ICU the doctors came back and said the cat-scan was clear (whew) and the chest x-ray showed I didn't have pneumonia, so now it was a matter of eliminating possibilities. The blood and urine tests didn't give any definitive answers so they were going to have to do a lumbar puncture, also known as a friggin spinal tap. To make matters worse, since I'd reacted to anesthetics when at the dentist a year or so ago, the doctor was going to have to do the spinal tap without any anesthetic. Lovely.

Spinal taps are not fun. I had three of them before they had enough of my spinal fluid to analyze to see if I had meningitis or some other infection in the fluid around the brain. I didn't scream at all, I think I just said 'fuck' pretty loudly on the 3rd one but that was about it, heh. My lower back is still sore now, four days later - the doctor advised the sore back and accompanying headache will last for about a week as a result of the spinal tap, which makes it kinda tough to know if my headache now is a result of that or because of something else.

Anyway the tests from that came out clear, so no meningitis (good). I spent the next couple of days in hospital on IV drip and my blood pressure leveled out at a nice 110/70 and my fever dropped with the IV drips etc, and finally they let me return home on Thursday late afternoon. Unfortunately after all that, they don't know what the hell I have, it seems to be some mystery viral thing that is particularly nasty, and also I guess weakens me so they have me on strong antibiotics for another couple of weeks and then I have to go back to hospital for a follow-up in about 10 days. Of course if the fever returns they said I'll need to be re-admitted immediately.

The headache has not stopped yet, and I feel very light-headed most of the time too and not in a very good mood at all, as IceQueen found out when I got all shitty last night when she wanted me to get back to bed but I wanted to fix the PC. I guess stopping smoking again at the same time has also made me extra shitty and not the best of company (had half a cigarette last Tuesday, nothing since).

IceQueen has taken time off work and looked after me and visited when I was in hospital and got everything organized re forms etc (hopefully everything will be covered by Medicare) and has just been awesome, so I feel like a prick for getting so shitty last night. Sorry sweetness. Her parents have been really supportive too, coming to hospital and her Mum made cutlets for when I got home again which were awesome. Anyway I'm not feeling great so I'm signing off for now.

update.. my doctor said it looks like I had West Nile Virus - a particularly nasty virus that has killed a bunch of people here in NYC as well as elsewhere. Probably got it from a mosquito bite. Apparently it has around a 15% fatality rate. Eep.

I've still got a monster headache I've had since Thursday night. Along with the feeling that an elephant's been stomping on my head constantly for nearly four days, I've been suffering fevers where I'm absolutely drenched with sweat (seriously, it looks like I stepped into the shower with my clothes on), then half an hour later I'm shivering cold with chattering teeth. I managed to make it through all five classes yesterday but was close to blacking out in two of them, so I'm going to the doctor later today. IceQueen was worried it might be viral meningitis since I have all the symptoms other than throwing up, and it got bad enough last night that she rang 911 and they sent some EMS people around. They checked me out a bit, but didn't even bother taking my temperature, and kept asking if I take drugs and seemed to be inferring I was in withdrawal or something - they seemed very pessimistic that I was actually really sick. They said they'd take me to hospital if I really wanted, but said the wait time was like 6 hours or more in the emergency rooms and nowhere to lay down and suggested I go see a doctor the next day if I'm not better. Since I already had set an appointment with my doctor for later this afternoon, I stayed put.

Our printer died in the weekend so IceQueen got a new one which is all up and running, thanks sweetness. Ice has been looking after me and made soup which is great - that's pretty much all I've been able to eat for a few days. Oh, and I won a tshirt from surf.co.nz for a story I wrote ages ago, thanks guys! Oh yeah, Urban Scrawl received its 100,000th visitor about half an hour ago!

This is very interesting... and perhaps a little crazy. FreedomUnderground.org published an article and video titled, The Pentagon : What really happened?. I've got the flash video hosted here in case they move the page, so feel free to check out this conspiracy theory questioning if American Airlines Flight 77 really did impact The Pentagon on 911 :

pentagon conspiracy video (approx 3.1MB)

It's a load of crap - in my opinion. They have quotes of a couple of people saying, "it sounded like a missile!" - did they bother to ask how these people know what a missile sounds like? There are hundreds of eye witnesses completely ignored by this farce because the producers cherry-picked the people who didn't actually see it, although allegedly heard it and saw the result, and since they didn't see a plane sticking out of the Pentagon like some kid's drawing, they assume there was no plane.

Just to help clarify that last point, here's some proof for you of what happens when a plane crashes into a reinforced concrete wall at 800km/h (and the walls of the Pentagon were most certainly reinforced) :

plane versus wall (approx 1.4MB) - click the play icon in the middle of the screen once it's loaded.

The entire plane is utterly pulverized into dust - there are no pieces left bigger than a few inches, let alone anything that looks even remotely like part of a plane. Of course this doesn't fit the agenda of the conspiracy theorists, so they'll just deny it and accuse anyone of bringing it up as part of the conspiracy. LOL. The vid comes from youtube if you have problems viewing it here.

Another asteroid is due to make a close call past earth tomorrow. I wrote an entry about a month ago regarding some of the close calls we've had recently, as well as upcoming ones such as the massive '4179 Toutatis' due to pass at the end of September. It seems a smaller one (2004 RU109) has been recently discovered and is due to pass earth at about the same distance as the moon is from earth (this is regarded as a very close approach). Fortunately this one is comparitively small, being in the order of an estimated 13 to 30m in diameter. Direct hits of asteroids that size are believed to not always make it to earth but instead explode in the atmosphere. If they do, the damage (if any) is localized. You can view more details (including a java applet orbit simulation which shows the asteroid path) via NASA's close approaches page.

It would seem that taking photographs in NYC (or anywhere in the US for that matter) can land you with accusations of being a terrorist, unless you're "a member of the press, holding a valid press identification card issued by the New York City Police Department or by others duly authorized in writing to engage in such activity by the authority". No, I'm not kidding. The possible penalty if innocent? Up to 10 days in jail and US$125 fine in the case of taking a photo in the NYC subway system. Nice one. Note that authorities were enforcing this law even though it had apparently not been legally passed into law at the time (I'm unsure if it has been passed into law even now). I guess that's where the Patriot Act abuse comes in - it seems authorities can just make it up as they go.

I can understand the need for police to question the motives of people taking photos of possible terrorist targets, but lets be a little realistic here; New York attracts tourists, and tourists take photographs, it's as simple as that. Similarly, I'd like to take photos around NYC so friends and family back home in New Zealand (or anyone else who's interested) can come to this website and see what we've been up to. It seems that I won't be able to do that. I thought that kind of crap went out with Communist Russia.

A weblogger named Etan was taking photos around his campus in New Jersey the other day when he was stopped by police and told that taking photos was illegal, and the officer went on to call him a terrorist (read the full story here on his weblog). Considering I'm starting my first day of class ever in an American educational institution tomorrow, I was thinking of taking some photos around campus as well. Guess not, I don't want to spend my first day of class being detained by the police, thank you very much.

Of course there's been a fair bit of discussion about this. My own thoughts in Etans case is that the officer was fully within his rights and doing his job to question him, and I don't have a problem with that (in fact in that sense I think the Patriot Act is ok in that it allows the officer to question him - there's no harm in that, and I would even consider it as being proactive). Calling Etan a terrorist and telling him it's illegal to take photographs is just complete bullshit however. Usually I'd say, "Don't blame the street cops, they're just following orders", but in this case the officer appears to have gone too far. I'd be highly offended if someone accused me of being a terrorist, and I'd damn well let them know it. What is really bad is that if Etan told them where to go and got arrested for it, that would go down on his permanent record and could adversely effect future employment etc., despite Etan being completely innocent, and that's totally unjust. Another commenter named 'Otter' said something which was very true though:

..and what is amazing to me is that I can read over what I write, and read Etan's post, and realize that three years ago today all of this would have sounded literally impossible to me. I'd sound like a conspiracy theorist. Etan would sound like a nutball. The police would sound like representatives of a government which is given powers and liberties which would not exist in the America I knew at the time..

Another example of the excesses and unfairness being exercised in enforcing the laws against these 'illegal activities' is well illustrated in this account titled "Humiliated, Angry, Ashamed, Brown." by photography student Ian Spiers. The photo essay is several pages worth and a very interesting read, the irony being that while Ian was harassed for wielding a camera by local security police and federal agents, camera-wielding tourists were passing by all around them unimpeded. I hope Ian gets an A+ for that assignment, he deserves it.

The moral in both these cases (if you can call it a moral) is to cooperate fully and do whatever the police say, regardless of your actual rights. That is not a good moral in a country based on freedom and democracy.

Of course there is a lot of people putting the blame squarely on Bush's shoulders. One thing to remember is that Bush did not start this, a group of terrorists started it almost three years ago by flying jets into the World Trade Towers. Had it been Kerry in power and had he done nothing (which seems to be likely), Kerry would've been torn apart by the public for it, and people would've been screaming to remove Kerry and replace him with Bush, however it just so happens that Bush was in the drivers seat when it went down. A comment by 'deadscot' on John P Hoke's Asylum addressed the following analogy to me in regards to wanting President Bush out:

Have you ever seen one of the prison buses with the cage that divides the poisoners from the guards and driver? Let's say you're sitting in the back of that bus and the driver is heading straight for a cliff. Do you want to stick with him because he knows how to drive, or do you want one of the guards to push him out of the way and take over the bus?

My response to this was to add an additional circumstance to the same analogy:

Let's say you're sitting in the back of that bus and the driver is heading straight for a cliff because some terrorist is holding a gun to his head. Do you want the guard to overpower the driver because he just happened to be the in that seat when the terrorist put the gun to his head, or do you want the guard to try to push the terrorist out of the way and let the driver do his job?

I don't like what's happening in the US, but at the same time I realize that as much as I dislike it, it is a consequence of the actions of terrorists.

If you want to blame someone, ultimately you should blame them.

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God went missing for six days. Eventually Michael the archangel found him on the seventh day, resting. He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"
God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look Michael, look what I've made."
Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"
"It's a planet," God replied, "and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a place of great balance."
"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.
God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth, "For example, Northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth while Southern Europe is going to be poor, the Middle East over there will be a hot spot. Over there I've placed a continent of white people and over there is a continent of black people." God continued, pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely hot and arid while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."
The Archangel, impressed by god's work, then pointed to a landmass in the bottom corner and asked, "What's that one?"
"Ah" said God. "That's New Zealand, the most glorious place on Earth. In that country I've put beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, streams and an exquisite coastline. The people from New Zealand are going to be modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they're going to be found travelling the world. They'll be extremely sociable, hardworking and high achieving, and they will be known throughout he world as diplomats and carriers of peace. I'm also going to give them super-human, undefeatable rugby players who will be admired and feared by all who come across them."
Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then proclaimed, "What about balance God? You said there would be balance!"
God replied wisely, "Wait until you see the pack of loud-mouthed bastards I'm putting next to them."

It seems the only way to get a decent job in NYC is with a university degree - in some cases it doesn't seem to matter if the degree is relevant to the job, just that you have one. I always believed experience counts for more, but if I have to go back to university to get my foot in the door, then so be it.

I'm sure I mentioned this somewhere already, but I'm starting full-time study with the City University of New York (aka CUNY) in a few days. CUNY is huge - they have over 100,000 registered students at a number of campuses spread around the boroughs of NYC. It took an age to get through the application process but eventually I was accepted, although they've put me in a local community college (Kingsborough) to do a 2-year associate degree as they don't really know what level I'm at, other than 6th form certificate in NZ is roughly equivalent to a high school diploma here, and I completed that many years ago.

I took placement exams already and blew them away.. achieved 100% in written, 93% in oral, and 93% in mathematics, so I don't have to take a lot of the earlier level classes, and can go straight into university level calculus. I can later transfer to another campus and complete a full bachelors degree, which is my intention.