Globally, food prices rose 43% in the first quarter of this year. Right now there is a lot of pain in Asia.
I’m reading The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery. He paints a grim picture. He says it is too late, we have changed the climate. Now we have to wait and see at which point the climate stabilizes. He says we have had a half-degree temperature rise and are committed to another degree and a half rise. Two degrees degrees is about the difference between now and the last ice age.
I suppose the food riots are a part of that climate change. The price rise heralds a shortage; food shortages herald disease… and war.
Since humanity will not voluntarily limit population, for survival we are dependent upon disease, war, weather, tectonic activity, and climate. Without natural and man made catastrophes, man would exceed the carrying capacity of the planet.
Which do you prefer; Asian Bird Flu or World War III?
I’ve been to war. I’ve had the flu. I’ll take the flu, thank you. There is less collateral damage. And it is way more democratic. No draft boards to bribe.
What was it the ranger at Chaco Canyon said? “The invention of agriculture is always attended by architecture, religion, and organized murder, usually war. The Aztecs merely combined the last two” …and called it dinner.
On May 10th we had a blizzard; about four inches of snow and fifty mile-per-hour winds. The next day it was sunny and fifty-four degrees. The storm was short, but very dangerous, especially since I had already put away my cold weather gear.
I wonder if my allergies are on me. I’m not usually this depressing.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Windows Update Repair Tool
From the Tech Bench
I am so embarrassed. On my first trip to the library near my new home, I angered the librarian.
I tried to convince her that her computer was infected. I saw that iron look that says, “Oh, boy, another know-it-all.” I saw that look and still I offered to help.
Sometimes I think it is easier for a one-armed fisherman to describe “the one that got away” than for a computer tech to explain what is wrong with a customer's computer.
A fisherman holding one hand to his left and looking to his right, is implying that the fish was twice the distance from that hand to his breastbone. That is a visible standard. That is something human, which even a hardened geek can understand.
In contrast to that, a tech has to convince his user that the computer is behaving abnormally, when it is self-evidently running as usual.
The tech's problem is exacerbated by the fact that some new computers are clabbered-up from the git-go. The owner never saw it run right, because it came from the factory overloaded with questionable software.
Years ago one company that gave away free computers, conditional on a three year contract with a certain Internet provider. The manufacturer made all its money off the advertisers. You can imagine what kind of customer service they gave.
Even the big computer companies started installing adware after 911. When we all got scared and quit buying, the manufacturers became desperate for income, any income.
I heard about a televised interview in which the executive of a computer company admitted without shame, “Yes, when our customers call for help, we know what the problem is and how to solve it. All they have to do is install, update and run Ad-aware, then install, update and run Spybot – Search and Destroy. But we can't tell them that, because it would be a violation of the contract we have with our software providers.”
Let me rephrase that for you: The executive confessed that his company is paid by advertisers to install data-miners on new computers. A data-miner is software designed to collect information about the computer owner and transmit that information to advertisers. His company is selling their customers into the hands of advertisers.
I admit the spyware spectrum runs from benign to malignant – and the executive probably believed his data-miners were benign – but to those of us who fix computers for a living, the admission sounds like Judas saying “Yes, I took thirty pieces of silver. So?”
One of the problems with having adware on a computer is that it tends to invite in its relatives. And adware comes from a BIG family. Pretty soon your computer starts running slooow; like an economy car with the handbrake set.
Worse, when you “restore” these computers after a crash, the manufacturer-provided software restores the data-miners, too.
Some customers think I'm dishonest when I tell them their computer is broke.
I can't blame them. Why should they think otherwise? It is running just like new!
The definition of a good virus is one that doesn't alert you to its presence. Regardless of the virus' designed function, if it breaks your computer badly enough that you have it fixed, then the virus was unsuccessful. Unsuccessful in the same sense that rabies is “unsuccessful” when it kills its host before it can propagate.
Still, some signs of a sick computer are so blatant they can be diagnosed by a passing tech during his sprint for the little boy's room.
And that was what I found on the library computer.
That big blue “e” icon on your computer's desktop, the one you click to start Internet Explorer? It is supposed to have a gold ring. If it doesn't have that golden halo, then your security updates are about three years out of date.
The librarian was angry because she interpreted my words as accusing her of not doing the updates. Her anger prevented her from hearing the next sentence, that if she is doing her part - if she is running Windows Update every month and still has the old blue-ring “e” - then the computer is broken.
I is an invidious problem because a computer with the broken Updater behaves very like a computer that is up to date. The only visible difference is that “e”.
I don't know what broke it. I don't care whether it was a virus or spyware or old age. It isn't a commonly discussed problem and I'm not good enough to figure it out.
But just because I don't know what broke it, doesn't mean I can't fix it!
In this case the fix is to search for and download a program called WURTBETA.EXE. That stands for Windows Update Repair Tool Beta.
Double-click on it. It will go to “black screen” and ask you a series of intimidating questions. Just agree with whatever it suggests. After awhile WURTBETA will return control of the computer to you.
I think you will be pleased the next time you run Windows Update.
Well, alarmed and then pleased. For years Windows has been telling you that your security was current and now you will have years worth of updates to download. But at least now you can update.
Uh,... do your backups first.
Oh, and if you meet an angry librarian, apologize to her for me, please. My intentions were good, I'm just socially challenged. I'm a geek.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
I know how al-Quida could win.
Oh, they are going to win anyway; they know who we are and how to hurt us. We don't know who they are or how to hurt them. Government fired the only guy who seemed to have a clue.
How do you hurt someone who desires to die for his cause? (The Brits used to bury the Muslim terrorists with a pig, to deprive them of heaven.)
I know how al-Quida could score a bloodless victory over the United States. All they have to do is publicize the facts about the Income Tax.
If they could persuade the American people that the Income Tax was illegal, immoral, and unenforcable, 40% of government revenue would dry up.
That 40% of government income supplied by the Income Tax is what pays for the social activist programs... and the foreign adventures.
Wouldn't it be ironic if our greatest enemy did us our biggest favor?
Oh, they are going to win anyway; they know who we are and how to hurt us. We don't know who they are or how to hurt them. Government fired the only guy who seemed to have a clue.
How do you hurt someone who desires to die for his cause? (The Brits used to bury the Muslim terrorists with a pig, to deprive them of heaven.)
I know how al-Quida could score a bloodless victory over the United States. All they have to do is publicize the facts about the Income Tax.
If they could persuade the American people that the Income Tax was illegal, immoral, and unenforcable, 40% of government revenue would dry up.
That 40% of government income supplied by the Income Tax is what pays for the social activist programs... and the foreign adventures.
Wouldn't it be ironic if our greatest enemy did us our biggest favor?
Wesley Snipes and Unreasonable Justice
The headlines state "Wesley Snipes Gets 3 Years".
The story says that he got three one-year sentences, to be served consecutively, which is weird.
He was convicted of three misdemeanors. The maximum allowable sentence for a misdemeanor is one year or - maybe - one year minus a day.
For the judge to give him the maximum sentence three times, then make them run consecutively makes me think the judge was peeved. This is a judge "throwing the book at him." The judge is violating the spirit of the law.
Perhaps it is just biased reporting; we aren't told which misdemeanors were violated.
I doubt if it will stand on appeal, but it is timely for the IRS. This is the annual high-profile tax case that the IRS tries to have in the news each April 15th.
In my eyes Snipes hurt his cause when he paid-up at the sentencing. He effectively admitted that he owed the money.
And it is hard to say that he doesn't owe the money.
If you sign your enlistment paper you have agreed to abide by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. You have agreed that appointees of your government have the right to shoot you if you if the enemy doesn't. You have put yourself between the hammer and the anvil.
If you sign your 1040, you have agreed to abide by the tax code... which is stupid, since the code is too complicated to understand and probably self-contradictory. Once you sign, they got you if they want you.
A friend describes it this way, "If you want to play baseball, you have to play by baseball rules... but you don't have to play baseball."
I haven't played baseball since 1998. When an agent called and pointed that out to me, I admitted it saying, "The income tax is voluntary. I don't choose to volunteer." She giggled. I'll swear it was a nervous giggle. She said, "I haven't heard that one before." She never called back.
Watch the video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6716929127738729234. It confirms what I've been reading for years; that the Income Tax is voluntary. Then ask yourself how Wesley Snipes got three years for not volunteering? (They couldn't punish him for not volunteering, so they hit him as hard as they could for something else.)
The video is of a talk given at the National Press Club. The speaker, Marcella Brooks, was the forewoman of a jury during a "willful failure to file" case. The defendant was acquitted because the government repeatedly refused cite - to the defendant and to the jury - the law where it says you have to file.
Now, tell me again what Wesley Snipes is going to jail about?
When I Google myself, all I find is a Capital-Journal interview where I claim/admit that I don't pay income tax. The interview was done in 1992, while I was running for Congress.
At the end of the article the reporter asked an IRS agent about it. The agent said, "We want everyone to pay their taxes."
This is the second most efficient form of lying; to tell a truth without answering the question. He said "the IRS wants everyone to pay their taxes" (true), but he didn't say I owed taxes.
What is really scary about this is that while some agents are innocent - they don't know that the income tax is voluntary - others are not. They know it is voluntary and they enforce it anyway. Revenuers depend on people's innocence and the IRS' ability to intimidate. We are not a "nation of laws", we are a nation of cowards.
I admit I'm terrified. Under the weight of a century of micro-management by Congress, consensus and law have broken down . Now I see my government seeking to achieve its goals by terror and intimidation.
I heard the following phrase at a Fully Informed Jury Association convention: "You have no rights which you do not assert."
Snipes should have stood on his right to a jury.
The story says that he got three one-year sentences, to be served consecutively, which is weird.
He was convicted of three misdemeanors. The maximum allowable sentence for a misdemeanor is one year or - maybe - one year minus a day.
For the judge to give him the maximum sentence three times, then make them run consecutively makes me think the judge was peeved. This is a judge "throwing the book at him." The judge is violating the spirit of the law.
Perhaps it is just biased reporting; we aren't told which misdemeanors were violated.
I doubt if it will stand on appeal, but it is timely for the IRS. This is the annual high-profile tax case that the IRS tries to have in the news each April 15th.
In my eyes Snipes hurt his cause when he paid-up at the sentencing. He effectively admitted that he owed the money.
And it is hard to say that he doesn't owe the money.
If you sign your enlistment paper you have agreed to abide by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. You have agreed that appointees of your government have the right to shoot you if you if the enemy doesn't. You have put yourself between the hammer and the anvil.
If you sign your 1040, you have agreed to abide by the tax code... which is stupid, since the code is too complicated to understand and probably self-contradictory. Once you sign, they got you if they want you.
A friend describes it this way, "If you want to play baseball, you have to play by baseball rules... but you don't have to play baseball."
I haven't played baseball since 1998. When an agent called and pointed that out to me, I admitted it saying, "The income tax is voluntary. I don't choose to volunteer." She giggled. I'll swear it was a nervous giggle. She said, "I haven't heard that one before." She never called back.
Watch the video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6716929127738729234. It confirms what I've been reading for years; that the Income Tax is voluntary. Then ask yourself how Wesley Snipes got three years for not volunteering? (They couldn't punish him for not volunteering, so they hit him as hard as they could for something else.)
The video is of a talk given at the National Press Club. The speaker, Marcella Brooks, was the forewoman of a jury during a "willful failure to file" case. The defendant was acquitted because the government repeatedly refused cite - to the defendant and to the jury - the law where it says you have to file.
Now, tell me again what Wesley Snipes is going to jail about?
When I Google myself, all I find is a Capital-Journal interview where I claim/admit that I don't pay income tax. The interview was done in 1992, while I was running for Congress.
At the end of the article the reporter asked an IRS agent about it. The agent said, "We want everyone to pay their taxes."
This is the second most efficient form of lying; to tell a truth without answering the question. He said "the IRS wants everyone to pay their taxes" (true), but he didn't say I owed taxes.
What is really scary about this is that while some agents are innocent - they don't know that the income tax is voluntary - others are not. They know it is voluntary and they enforce it anyway. Revenuers depend on people's innocence and the IRS' ability to intimidate. We are not a "nation of laws", we are a nation of cowards.
I admit I'm terrified. Under the weight of a century of micro-management by Congress, consensus and law have broken down . Now I see my government seeking to achieve its goals by terror and intimidation.
I heard the following phrase at a Fully Informed Jury Association convention: "You have no rights which you do not assert."
Snipes should have stood on his right to a jury.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Radio Memories
Eat-n-Write, a memoir writing class
2 Aug 2006
Radio Memories
I remember driving cross-country at night with my parents. In the ’50’s we lived 185 miles north of my grandparents, and often wound up driving home after dark.
After we kids settled down, we’d listen to dad sing, and – finally - we’d be reduced to listening to the radio.
It is a perverse fact, but I enjoy staticy radio… it reminds me of my youth, of being warm and safe and all together with the family.
I don’t remember what was on the radio. I just remember the ambiance.
Today when I listen to radio I get ball games or Rush Limbaugh.
I hate ball games… unless I am watching them with family.
I don’t like ball games because crowds manipulate my emotions.
In the mid-60’s I joined the army and went to Vietnam as a result of such manipulation.
And after Vietnam I spent two months in an army hospital winding down.
My emotions are MINE. I want other people to leave them alone.
Advertisers be damned. Histrionic commentators be damned. I know what you are doing, and my finger rests on the ‘off’ button.
Rush Limbaugh tries hard to manipulate my emotions. I listen when I can’t stand whatever else is on.
Rush paints the Liberals in a dark light… although I don’t believe the Conservatives are any better.
I’ve been thinking about writing a suggestion to the Libertarians. They ought to publish a “vote for” list. They have enough votes to swing an election… if they could act together… if they could bring themselves to vote for “a lesser evil” instead of “a sure loser, but isn’t he a good guy?”
I think the Libertarians should vote as a block for a couple of election cycles. They could rock the boat; bust up the Republicrat block. Those two have been leaning toward each other for so long – trying to steal voters from the other party – that they are distinguishable only by rhetoric.
The problem is… for whom should Libertarians vote?
Until this morning I was going to vote Democratic, but after listening to Rush…
But I can’t vote Republican because that would reward Rush.
So I guess I’ll vote Libertarian, just because I hate… hate?… Rush with his talk of his crotch and his lovable, pink, naked, body… That man is gross. That man has no shame.
I want my PBS… preferably on a staticy station being pulled in from far away, on a cold, dark night, with my boys in the warm car.
I want my boys to have sleepy memories of being warm and safe and all together with family.
Thanks to Charlie Kempthorne of The Life Story Institute. http://www.thelifestoryinstitute.com/fatbook2.htm
2 Aug 2006
Radio Memories
I remember driving cross-country at night with my parents. In the ’50’s we lived 185 miles north of my grandparents, and often wound up driving home after dark.
After we kids settled down, we’d listen to dad sing, and – finally - we’d be reduced to listening to the radio.
It is a perverse fact, but I enjoy staticy radio… it reminds me of my youth, of being warm and safe and all together with the family.
I don’t remember what was on the radio. I just remember the ambiance.
Today when I listen to radio I get ball games or Rush Limbaugh.
I hate ball games… unless I am watching them with family.
I don’t like ball games because crowds manipulate my emotions.
In the mid-60’s I joined the army and went to Vietnam as a result of such manipulation.
And after Vietnam I spent two months in an army hospital winding down.
My emotions are MINE. I want other people to leave them alone.
Advertisers be damned. Histrionic commentators be damned. I know what you are doing, and my finger rests on the ‘off’ button.
Rush Limbaugh tries hard to manipulate my emotions. I listen when I can’t stand whatever else is on.
Rush paints the Liberals in a dark light… although I don’t believe the Conservatives are any better.
I’ve been thinking about writing a suggestion to the Libertarians. They ought to publish a “vote for” list. They have enough votes to swing an election… if they could act together… if they could bring themselves to vote for “a lesser evil” instead of “a sure loser, but isn’t he a good guy?”
I think the Libertarians should vote as a block for a couple of election cycles. They could rock the boat; bust up the Republicrat block. Those two have been leaning toward each other for so long – trying to steal voters from the other party – that they are distinguishable only by rhetoric.
The problem is… for whom should Libertarians vote?
Until this morning I was going to vote Democratic, but after listening to Rush…
But I can’t vote Republican because that would reward Rush.
So I guess I’ll vote Libertarian, just because I hate… hate?… Rush with his talk of his crotch and his lovable, pink, naked, body… That man is gross. That man has no shame.
I want my PBS… preferably on a staticy station being pulled in from far away, on a cold, dark night, with my boys in the warm car.
I want my boys to have sleepy memories of being warm and safe and all together with family.
Thanks to Charlie Kempthorne of The Life Story Institute. http://www.thelifestoryinstitute.com/fatbook2.htm
Mason City, Iowa
Travelogue 8/29/06
This summer has been delightful. We entertain a hope that we can return to Manhattan after a year or two, but right now we are compelled by allergies to flee. We have spent the summer looking for a spot to settle. Our first trip was through Colorado, Utah, New Mexico. Our second trip was Iowa, Wisconsin. Our third trip was New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska.
Mason Iowa is postcard perfect. My comment as we drove into town was, “It looks like the set of The Music Man, and it turned out to be the birthplace of Meredith Willson; author of The Music Man.
There is a little park that has a campground and a truly wonderful water park.
Little girls wait with bated breath to be noticed so they can wave and be friendly. (They aren't pushy, they are just attentively waiting to catch your eye.)
The campground was really crowded with RV's, but there were few people. I asked our neighbor to the east if this was common. He said, “This isn't crowded. You should have seen it last week.” he then gave us the two dollar tour.
The campground is open seasonally, but when it opens, some people move in and live there for seven months, until it closes. (And their campsites show it.)
I asked about the Civil War, Union Army-style tent to our west. He said it belonged to a homeless single-mother who works nights.
A little later he walked past our tent saying, “I've got to leave for awhile. You are welcome to use my campfire. I've got two packages of hot dogs. You are welcome to one of them.”
The next morning we tried to check our e-mail but couldn't get on. When we discussed it with the campground hostess she lent us her laptop. She was apologetic because she had to go pickup her daughter at school, she couldn't stay while we used her laptop. I asked if everybody was always this helpful (“trusting” was the word I had in mind). She said, “Oh, no. But stranger things happen. Two weeks ago, during the fair, one of the vendor's hired help was delayed. It was his nephew and he couldn't get here on time 'cause of classes or something. My husband helped until the nephew got here. My husband cooked funnel cakes for two days.”
I love Mason City, Iowa.
I wish it were allergy free.
This summer has been delightful. We entertain a hope that we can return to Manhattan after a year or two, but right now we are compelled by allergies to flee. We have spent the summer looking for a spot to settle. Our first trip was through Colorado, Utah, New Mexico. Our second trip was Iowa, Wisconsin. Our third trip was New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska.
Mason Iowa is postcard perfect. My comment as we drove into town was, “It looks like the set of The Music Man, and it turned out to be the birthplace of Meredith Willson; author of The Music Man.
There is a little park that has a campground and a truly wonderful water park.
Little girls wait with bated breath to be noticed so they can wave and be friendly. (They aren't pushy, they are just attentively waiting to catch your eye.)
The campground was really crowded with RV's, but there were few people. I asked our neighbor to the east if this was common. He said, “This isn't crowded. You should have seen it last week.” he then gave us the two dollar tour.
The campground is open seasonally, but when it opens, some people move in and live there for seven months, until it closes. (And their campsites show it.)
I asked about the Civil War, Union Army-style tent to our west. He said it belonged to a homeless single-mother who works nights.
A little later he walked past our tent saying, “I've got to leave for awhile. You are welcome to use my campfire. I've got two packages of hot dogs. You are welcome to one of them.”
The next morning we tried to check our e-mail but couldn't get on. When we discussed it with the campground hostess she lent us her laptop. She was apologetic because she had to go pickup her daughter at school, she couldn't stay while we used her laptop. I asked if everybody was always this helpful (“trusting” was the word I had in mind). She said, “Oh, no. But stranger things happen. Two weeks ago, during the fair, one of the vendor's hired help was delayed. It was his nephew and he couldn't get here on time 'cause of classes or something. My husband helped until the nephew got here. My husband cooked funnel cakes for two days.”
I love Mason City, Iowa.
I wish it were allergy free.
Bathroom Graffitti
Bathroom Graffitti
Read in Wagon Mound, NM on 25 Oct. 07.
“F… USA”
A second hand writes, “Then quit sneaking over the boarders.”
A third hand corrects, “It’s borders.”
A couple of nights ago Danni and I caught a graffittist at work. His two buddies saw us and walked away; one east, one west. (He was shaking the can and talking so he didn't hear us approach.)
I asked him what he was going to write, but he claimed to not know whereof I spoke as he "inconspicuously" pocketed the can of paint.
We were yelling at each other across the street. We weren't arguing. Just carrying on a private conversation over traffic.
I hollered, "It is a good sign that you might be doing something wrong, if your friends will abandon you without warning."
He looked around, maybe noticing for the first time that he was alone.
What I didn't say was, that it might also be a good sign that he needs new friends.
I was young once, and in need of new friends.
And I was lucky enough to get them.
May he be lucky, too.
Read in Wagon Mound, NM on 25 Oct. 07.
“F… USA”
A second hand writes, “Then quit sneaking over the boarders.”
A third hand corrects, “It’s borders.”
A couple of nights ago Danni and I caught a graffittist at work. His two buddies saw us and walked away; one east, one west. (He was shaking the can and talking so he didn't hear us approach.)
I asked him what he was going to write, but he claimed to not know whereof I spoke as he "inconspicuously" pocketed the can of paint.
We were yelling at each other across the street. We weren't arguing. Just carrying on a private conversation over traffic.
I hollered, "It is a good sign that you might be doing something wrong, if your friends will abandon you without warning."
He looked around, maybe noticing for the first time that he was alone.
What I didn't say was, that it might also be a good sign that he needs new friends.
I was young once, and in need of new friends.
And I was lucky enough to get them.
May he be lucky, too.
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