Vaping with flavor

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It only took a few days of reporting for my wife and I to determine where the deaths and illnesses were coming from with respect to vaping.

We called it out at that time as being bad juice as it was using an oil based additive. It is easy to understand that we do not put oils into our lungs. It coats the alvioli thus preventing the oxygen to carbon dioxide exchange.

The media jumped all over this and the pressure to ban flavors jumped to the forefront. The establishment saw the opportunity to ban something that they did not like citing bullshit theory during a “panic”. Those who view the world in an analytical manner sat back and put thought to the issue. NPR did a show covering the topic and I sent an email in hopes that they would at least be interested in a dissenting view. I got a nice form email back form them. It was clear that my experience with vaping for nearly eight years did not fit their narrative to whip up supporting a ban on vaping or flavored juices.

Now, the CDC has confirmed what Gigglez and I were saying in the first few days. Juice using vitamin E acetate is to blame for for the deaths and illnesses. What?!? It had nothing to do with flavors? What sorcery is this?

With the truth being determined and brought out into the open, do you think that the jurisdictions that enacted bans, putting people out of work, and making people go back to smoking their death sticks have reversed their actions? Nope, the scare served their purposes to control the masses. Why should they?

It is time to right the wrongs. Allow flavored e-juices to be sold again. The arguments made to ban them are just as ignorant as those about flavored cigarettes, and some alcohols.

Speaking of ignorance, vaping does not lead to smoking. It is however a viable option for smokers to reduce their health risks. Vaping is not perfect. Most people still take in nicotine, but the rest of the ingredients are food grade… so think about that for a moment. the same stuff that we take in on a daily, the powers that be want to block because they do not like the way that it looks.

When I started vaping, both my doctor and cardiologist were in support of eliminating the tars, and 3000+ chemicals going to my lungs. I have not had a single puff from an analog cigarette since I switched. I reduced my nicotine levels form 24 mg (at a high) to 8 mg. When my supply runs out, I will have the choice of either illegally making my own juice, having it shipped illegally, or going to smoking again… none of those options are appealing. Bring back the flavors.

Bald Eagles and the EPA

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When I was a kid, the EPA was formed as our environment was going to hell.

Lake Erie had caught fire, the air over major cities like New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco etc were unhealthy not to mention looking like crap.

We started learning more and more about the effect of various chemicals on our bodies and the whole ecosystem.

Richard Nixon created the EPA in 1970 to address these problems and many more. The people knew that we had to do sometime or we would lose species after species.

Our national symbol was struggling due to pesticides thinning the shells of their eggs. After decades of hard work, sacrifice, and legal protection/action the bald eagles started to rebuild in numbers.

I did not see my first bald eagle in the wild until about fifteen years ago. I was taking my son out along a local river and there it was flying upstream. I was stunned at the sight and quite excited.

The other day as I was driving home over the Columbia River something caught my peripheral vision. I looked over and the was a bald eagle flying along beside me about 50 feet away from the bridge. It didn’t take long before it was joined by another eagle.  The feathers on the head and tail were gleaming white. They flew together in the winds making their way upstream.

I do not think that I would have had a chance to enjoy this sight if it were not for the concern and hard work of the multitudes of good people.

Here at this same time, there are efforts to dismantle the EPA. They want to delist many species. It seems to be in favor of corporate interests time and time again. Yes, all life on this planet only has so much time to exist. Why not make our time as wonderful as possible?

Keep an eye on what the government is up to. We have to do what is right for the animals, people, and the planet, not just business.

Impeachment is a Constitutional Requirement

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Why is it so hard to understand the current situation with the impeachment inquiry? Do not expect it to be like a court of law, it isn’t. It is an investigation. It is not a difficult concept folks. If you want to liken it to the criminal justice system, then look at it as being in the grand jury phase. No charges have been leveled yet. The grand jury is secret, the suspect (remember that they are not a defendant yet) does not sit in, nor do they have representation. This is all part of an investigation.
Stop trying to impede the process. If the president did nothing wrong, then the evidence will prove it right?
When the investigation phase concludes, the committee(s) may bring forth articles of impeachment. If they do, then they would be debated and voted upon by the full house.
For the sake of argument, the house votes to refer the articles to the Senate for trial.
If we had a Senate that still cared about the American system, and the rule of law, then the trial in the Senate would review the evidence, question and cross examine witnesses and review evidence.
When the trial ran through the process, the senators would vote. If guilty, then they move to the penalty phase.
In the penalty phase it could be censure, removal, or removal with disqualification from holding federal office.
The GOP needs to let the House do its duty and flow through the process. We know that Moscow Mitch is not going to let anything to happen to Trump, no matter what Trump does. He is a spineless piece of shit.
Remember, patriots believe in the justice system. They believe in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Impeachment is an accusation, not necessarily removal.

A whole new build

Griz5 Comments

Well, for those that have with me for a long time, this may be a shock.

I have migrated to a new server and as I contemplated moving all of the old content, I decided against it. It seems like a good time to get a clean start with no excess clutter to troubleshoot as I develop the new page.

For those that had PissedOffPirate.com email addresses and they stopped working, please let me know if you wish to continue using them and I will set them up on the new server.

I am checking out new commenting systems as well. The biggest flaw with IntenseDebate is that they did not develop with the times. They did not adopt social media commenting, so those who were connecting via Facebook, LinkedIn etc had to create an account to engage. My desire is for a more inclusive commenting structure without the need to yet another login to remember.

Sextortion – Were you aware of it?

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As so many are flocking to cell phones and the ages of the users are getting younger, there is a topic that parents need to be aware of.

Sextortion is a form of sexual exploitation that employs non-physical forms of coercion to extort sexual favors from the victim. Sextortion refers to the broad category of sexual exploitation in which abuse of power is the means of coercion, as well as to the category of sexual exploitation in which threatened release of sexual images or information is the means of coercion.[1]

We as a society need to be able to band together to combat this psychological attack against our youth. 83% of the victims are female, and 46% are minors. Like physical sexual assault, it is estimated that only a third or less of the victims report the crime. 60% of the perpetrators knew the victim before the incident.

I have reviewed the evidence of one of these cases personally. No, I will not share that data as the victim does not deserve that. The portrayal below is based on that incident but is sanitized for her privacy. This was properly reported to the appropriate authorities.

Here is how this abuse occurred:

  • Victim received a text from an unknown source
  • criminal claimed that they had nude photos of the victim
  • They also recited her street address, including which room within her apartment was hers
  • the pictures were going to be shared on all forms of social media unless she complied with the criminal
  • the criminal wanted her to disrobe for more pictures
  • on a the second day the criminal resumed texting with a more aggressive tone
  • the same intent of getting more pictures
  • Criminal escalated to calling the victim and pressuring her to an online video chat service in Scandinavia (I believe in Norway) to excuse herself from family to go to a bathroom to disrobe and put herself on display.

As I and my colleagues tried to trace the evidence and find the personal data exposure, we were impressed with the victim’s awareness of protecting her data. She does not have her college address shared with any databases other than Amazon, and even they did not have which room was hers.

Text messages are very hard to trace unless you are law enforcement. Even for them, they are not easy. Because of my role, I was able to provide the FBI with the owner (not the user) of the phone numbers used to text and call the victim.  I was also able to  alert the abuse team at the video chat service so that they could review the actions of their users. Since I did not have a subpoena, I was unable to get data to relay to the FBI.

When the victim returned to campus, she found that her roommates were also victims. Since the issue was clearly involving a local perp, the apartment management was advised. They had a very lame excuse that this was a data breach when someone restarted the internet. I am still stunned with how stupid this answer is. The apartment management company did say that seven women had come forward. This number ended up rising to twenty when published by a local media source. The article was a plea for other victims to come forward. It is my personal opinion that the apartment complex has a rogue employee that needs to be identified, arrested, and prosecuted. So far this particular incident is limited to the complex.

When I asked if the abuse has continued, the victim stated that there has not been a peep since the police report was filed. The situation is getting great exposure on campus so the student body is much more aware.

If you check the links below, you will find that this situation is not isolated, but becoming more and more common.

Parents need the same level of awareness. This is the tool that you need to arm your kids (regardless of how grown that they are) so that they can fend off these pond scum samples.

Obviously the first line is to make sure that they do not have these kinds of pictures TO BE shared in the first place. I also know that this is wishful thinking, just like abstaining from sex before committed relationships. It is talking to them so that they know if they do not have content for the criminals to share, then why co-operate with their demands. Do not delete the texts, call logs or any other evidence. The local police (and likely the FBI) need to be contacted. Take the time to file the report. The perp needs to be caught. This is nothing to be ashamed of. Even if your kids DID have content that could be exposed, this is not the time to blame the victim. They did nothing to deserve this. My thought is to treat that situation as you would when your kid calls form a party/bar after drinking. Get them to safety then discuss when it is more mentally safe to do so. If your kids know without a doubt that you will stand with them, then they will be more likely to tell you of the incident so you can help them through it.

I hope that nobody that you know has to go through this, but the numbers indicate that it will hit close to home.

Related useful links:

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/sextortion

https://www.fbi.gov/audio-repository/news-podcasts-inside-sextortion-and-the-lucas-chansler-case.mp3/view

Prosecutors: ‘Sextortion’ Cases Targeting Young Women At Alarming Rate