Sleepless in Midland

NSA Flix: Netflix for Private Information

Nothing's private anymore anyway. So instead of only NSA listening in on our conversations, anyone can listen in. But only if they subscribe -- the money can be used to hire more contractors.

Watch the new NSA commercial here. "The NSA has decided to launch a new, exciting product that the entire family can enjoy. Cancel your Netflix subscription now and demand NSA Flix."

Via Presurfer.

Cooking cookies in a hot car -- does that work?

Found this photo here, and it actually looks doable.

But at least one recipe says chocolate chip cookies need to be cooked 10 minutes at 350ºF. The inside of a car on a hot day may exceed 200ºF, but is that enough to cook a cookie?

If nothing else, it would generate a nice aroma. Forget that new car smell, it's cookies all the way home, baby!

MPD Open house

Meet Gus. He's a handsome German Shepard Dutch Malinois mix. He's a very well behaved dog, too, so well behaved that he won't tear your arm off unless he's given the proper command, in Dutch, by the right person.

That's Mollie Pehl (nee Porter) handling him. You may remember her from Police Academy - training defensive moves and Defensive Combat -- fists, feet, knives -- a pro fighter teaches police.

Gus is one of the MPD K-9 officers, and he was on display today at the Midland, Texas, Police Department Open House along with the Swat Team, the Rifle Team, and the Explosive Ordinance Division (Bomb Squad).

The EOD is a fascinating group. One has to admire the courage it takes to approach and disarm an explosive device -- you saw "The Hurt Locker," right? On the other hand, it must be fun playing with all the cool toys, like the Remotec Andros robot, for example.

When a suspicious package is reported the first step for the EOD is to X ray it with their portable machine. Once the film is developed, which they can do on location, they decide whether it's harmless or whether they need to blow it up to see what's in it. A package containing a cell phone and charging cable, however innocent, may be all it takes to raise suspicion. The next step is to haul it to a safe place and blow it apart. A couple of plastic water bottles with some C4 attached to them can project water with enough power to blow a package apart. Then they go pick up the pieces to see what was in it. If it was a bomb the water blast would have separated the blasting cap from the explosive material rendering it harmless.  Very impressive.

Previously on these pages about the Bomb Squad:
Fire in the Hole! The MPD Bomb Squad Performs and
Gunmen, hostages, bombs -- it's only a drill.

Let's not forget the children. There were lots of hands-on experiences available for the kiddos.

Fun, fun fun!

Everyone had a good time.

[Correction.  The spelling of Officer Pehl's name was corrected.]

Carlsbad Caverns -- nice view plus relief from the heat!

The troglodytes have it made over surface dwellers on these hot summer days. With the surface temps exceeding 100ºF, the temperature down in Carlsbad Caverns stays at a pleasant 56º. Ahhh. And the view is spectacular!

Here are a few photos taken two days ago. There is no natural light whatsoever down there. All the light is from strategically placed incandescent bulbs which provide some color.

This panorama above consists of the same view taken without a flash, then with a flash. As you can see the natural color is rather drab.

Here are some shots from random places within the cavern. Note the handrail in the one on the left above. It provides a little perspective on the enormity of the place.

A few more.

Finally:

Reach, reach, reach! Just a little bit more! In another few thousand years the points might actually connect.

How come electricity suppliers can't keep up with the demand?

Sometimes it seems we're paying first world prices for third world service. Yesterday (6/26/13) was a hot day in Midland, Texas, government weather reported 109ºF. But, the heat index was only 103ºF, so we had that going for us.

It was a heat wave, the type that happens in Texas several times every summer. So why can't the electricity providers keep up with the demand? Newswest9.com told us at 4:30 PM yesterday the following:

Numerous NewsWest 9 viewers are calling into the NewsWest 9 newsroom about power outages in Midland and Odessa.

The first power outage is in Midland. According to the ONCOR Stormcenter website, over 2,900 customers are without power on the west side of Midland.

Power is anticipated to be back on by 6 p.m.

Who is to blame? Why it must be the customers, because Oncor has asked them to cut back.

Tell ya what. We're paying sums in three figures per month for electricity. So how about the power company try to keep up with the increased demand that everyone knows comes every time there's a heat wave, year after year.

If they can't keep up with an ordinary heat wave, it doesn't sound like they would do well if something really significant happened, a Carrington Event or an EMP, for example.

A farm bill hero

He's Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas, who was elected in 2010, represents the district which happens to be the second largest recipient of farm subsidies in the country. And he voted "no" on the farm bill in the House on June 20.

From DailyCaller.com:

“I know one farmer stood up and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to defend our subsidies.’ … Well, I understand, but I also have to defend the future for the entire country,” Huelskamp told TheDC News Foundation.

“Most folks recognize in my district that the food stamps and the farm programs need to do a better job with less money in those programs,” Huelskamp added.

Not only does his district rank #2 on the list of farm subsidy recipients, Mr. Huelskamp's top industry contributor was Crop Production & Basic Processing.

It takes courage to stand up to special interests and put America first. And the man has the right stuff. Three cheers for this American hero!

Texas is first state to require probable cause and search warrant to spy on emails

On June 14 Governor Perry signed HB 2268 which amended the law in Texas to add provisions clarifying that law enforcement must obtain a search warrant supported by probably cause before they can get access to a person's e-mail information. Texas Legislature Online gives authorship credit to Representatives John Frullo of Lubbock, Senfronia Thompson of Houston, and Allen Fletcher of Cypress. Read the Texas bill here-PDF.

Naked Security puts it this way: Texas becomes first US state to ban warrantless email snooping.

The feds are the ones who were recently embarrassed for email and phone snooping. All this state law does is restrict state law enforcement to a stricter standard. So the feds can thumb their noses at Texas law and keep on snooping if they want. But maybe the U.S. Congress will note the attention this is getting and decide to give citizens a little protection from an Executive branch that has proved so untrustworthy with the power it has over the people.

Something for the art lovers out there -- Metropolitan Museum of Butts

Check out the Metropolitan Museum of Butts which features photos of sculptures in museums, from the back.

Tag line: "Gay or straight, man or woman... everybody likes butts. And everybody has a butt."

Via mentalfloss.com.

Sleepless in Midland -- always trying to move you to a higher level.

Has Bill Maher gotten more mature?

Bill Maher has been a slave to political correctness since his days on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher in which he played up to his progressive following. But today we see two separate and baffling headlines.

The first one: Bill Maher hammers Islam: ‘It’s the liberals here who don’t quite get it’.

He's been hammering Christianity forever. But it appears at first blush that he's figured out who the real enemy is. Does he finally get it?

And here's the other one, this one about Paula Deen who was targeted by the race industry and sacked by The Food Chanel for using the "N" word: Bill Maher Sort Of Defended Paula Deen On ‘Real Time’.

There's an old saying, something like, "If you aren't liberal when you're young, you don't have a heart. If your aren't conservative when you mature, you don't have a brain." Maybe Bill Maher has matured.  Or maybe he had a spell of temporary sanity.

Criminals sought, caught by local police

On June 19 the city of Midland, Texas, issued a news release alerting citizens to an attempted theft at a local store during which the thief pulled a knife on an employee who tried to follow him. Surveillance photos were published, and after about a day, the suspect was apprehended. See MPD: Man arrested for alleged Academy Sports thefts:

MPD officers arrested 37-year-old Fernando Rocha Thursday after receiving tips regarding the suspect’s identity.

Three cheers for the citizen(s) who helped identify that perp!

Then on June 20, a city news release alerted citizens about another criminal on the loose. This one attempted to abduct women on two separate occasions and stabbed one of them. Photos were released, and now we learn that an arrest has been made in that case, too. See Police Arrest Man Wanted For Aggravated Robbery 6/21/13:

A suspect has been arrested in connection with two aggravated robberies that took place early Thursday morning. The suspect was identified as 51-year-old Sidney Green (DOB 12/16/61), who is currently detained at Ector County Jail. Green was charged with aggravated robbery, and other charges are pending.

Let's help put a stop to criminal behavior. Each of us should stay alert and be aware of our surroundings at all times. The city has grown rapidly in the past year, and among the newcomers may be some predatory types who see our relaxed attitude and view us as tempting targets. Better that they should fear us rather than see us as potential victims.

Farm bill pork barrel is down for the count but it will be back

The House of Representatives defeated the Farm Bill yesterday in a 195-234 vote. The vote totals you see below came from the clerk.house.gov:

House vote on Farm Bill

	Ayes	Noes	Present	NV
Republicans	171	62	0	1
Democrats	24	172	0	5
Inependents	0	0	0	0
Totals	195	234	0	6

What's astonishing is that 171 Republicans voted for it -- that's the party that we hoped would champion fiscal responsibility with more than lip service. But you can't keep prolific porkers down.

Chris Edwards has fun with it at The GOP, the Farm Bill, and Cognitive Dissonance where he takes quotes from some Republican Representatives' websites where they boast about how fiscally responsible they are. Our own Mike Conaway is in there. He wanted the farm bill passed, but here's what he says at his website:

Our nation is in a budgetary crisis. Last year, the federal government borrowed about 40 percent of all the money it spent. And today, our national debt stands at more than $16 trillion, with more than $5 trillion added in the past four years.

As a CPA and fiscal conservative, I am committed to working with my colleagues to cut spending and put our fiscal house in order. Congress does not have a blank check; it is vitally important that we balance the federal budget.

By "we" he must mean "someone else." So you can expect a return of the farm bill.

How to thwart those annoying Yahoo email hackers

Yesterday's complaint was about Yahoo email hackers, and in particular, how two Yahoo email accounts of mine sent spam out to some of my contacts. I noted in that previous post that a mysterious entry from Israel appeared in the log-in history. That wasn't me, that was the hacker who logged in through a "Yahoo Partner's Application." See a screen shot on the right.

Adding to the mystery was the clean bill of health provided by no fewer than two anti-virus programs and two malware detectors. That plus reading opinions of others has convinced me that the problem isn't with my machine but with Yahoo's email program. There's a vulnerability that Yahoo can't seem to get a grip on.

So Yahoo email users have to take matters into their own hands. The Yahoo help pages suggest frequent password changes and all the usual blather. But a suggestion from Molly in a comment to that prior post provides a tactic that will probably more effectively cut off the hackers access -- disable the "Yahoo Partner's Application" feature. (Thanks Molly!)

To get rid of those uninvited "Yahoo Partners" follow these instructions after logging into your email account:

1. For users of the "New" Yahoo email, roll the cursor over the little thing that looks like a gear in the upper right, and a list appears. Click the one on the bottom that says, "Account Info."

2. If it asks, re-enter your password. (Go ahead, we aren't watching.)

3. Then on the page that appears locate the category "Sign-In and Security."

4. Under that heading find and click "Manage Apps and Website Connections."

5. Once there, if "Yahoo Partner's Application" appears, click "Remove."

6. Click "Sign off" and you're done.

If you're lucky enough to still be using the old Yahoo email, click "options" in the upper right to reveal a list which includes "Mail Options." Click that one. Then on the new page, click "Account Information" which appears in the list on the left. That takes you to the screen where you have to re-enter your password. And that takes you to item #2, above, where the rest is the same.

I was using the old Yahoo mail on the two hacked accounts, but another thing that axehole hacker did was irrevocably upgrade them to the crappy new Yahoo mail. Grrrr.

Yahoo mail it too easy to hack

Many of my Yahoo using email acquaintances have gotten hacked in the past few months. By "hacked" I mean that Yahoo email service is sending bogus emails to their contacts. The email appears to be from the right person and the text may even contain their name. The message will be something bland, but there will always be a hyperlink.

I routinely ignore emails like that and never click on the link. However, in spite of my precautions, yesterday afternoon one of my Yahoo email accounts sent out emails to a bunch of my contacts with a bland message and a hyperlink. As soon as I discovered it I sent a real email to all of them telling them not to click on that link.

This morning another of my Yahoo email accounts experienced the same thing at 6:45 AM. The account page showed that someone logged in with "Yahoo! Partner's Application" at that time from Israel.

I changed the passwords and deleted the contact lists for both accounts to deprive them of spammunition. Then I ran two anti-virus programs on my computer, AVG and Avast. Both programs reported that my computer was clean. Then I ran the Sophos virus removal tool and Malwarebytes Anti-malware tool. Both reported a clean computer.

So what was the problem? I still don't know, but I strongly suspect it was Yahoo and not my computer or something I did. That suspicion is shared by others. See Yahoo's Email Hacking Problem Starts To Hurt As Major Telecom Provider Ditches The Service:

A British telecom company says it will no longer make Yahoo Mail the default email service for its 6 million customers due to concerns their accounts are vulnerable to getting hacked.

“We will be switching customers’ email over to BT Mail, which will include the features and functions they expect from a modern email service,” said Nick Wong, online director for British Telecom’s consumer division, according to The Telegraph.

The shift of BT's 6 million customers to another email service represents just a small fraction of Yahoo's overall email customer base of about 280 million people worldwide. But the loss of clients could be a troubling sign for a company that relies heavily on maintaining its email users to generate advertising revenue. Yahoo is now the third-largest email provider after Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Outlook.com.

That Yahoo hasn't yet solved the problem suggests it must be a big one.

One of my correspondents asked if it might be NSA. Hmm. Maybe that explains the clean anti-virus reports. Those off-the-shelf anti-virus programs don't know how to detect sophisticated state sponsored viruses. But even if they did, the companies, at least the American ones, might be prohibited from alerting their users.

Update: Molly in a comment pins the problem on "Yahoo Partner Applications." See How to thwart those annoying Yahoo email hackers for a step-by-step on how to get rid of it. Thanks Molly!

Reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s computer breached -- it could happen to anyone

James Rosen of Fox News was in the spotlight recently for being the target of Eric Holder's Department of Justice email grabs. He probably wasn't the only reporter targeted at Fox News.

But this one at CBS really is intriguing. Sharyl Attkisson is a reporter there who was actively pursuing the mysteries of Fast and Furious and the Benghazi terrorist attack. The Obama administration has made it clear they want both of those topics to disappear. Now we learn that her office and home computers were mysteriously hacked. See this from CBSnews.com Sharyl Attkisson on computer hacking: "I'm outraged".

"The unauthorized party accessed the CBS computer at my home on multiple occasions, and specifically in December, they used sophisticated methods to cover their tracks, meaning they tried to remove the indications of their previous unauthorized activity," she said. "We're not prepared to talk more about the who's and who did this today, but the intruder is considered highly skilled and used very sophisticated methods."

Emphasis mine. More:

Speaking of the invasion of the computers, Attkisson said, "When any unauthorized party comes into the home of an American -- whether it's a private citizen or a journalist -- and searches through their computers, inserting or removing material for whatever their reason is, it's a very serious and disturbing matter.

"I'm outraged that anyone would do such a thing and CBS News takes all of this very seriously."

That's good news that CBS News is taking it seriously. It was only last month that Attkisson was in jeopardy of losing her job over her aggressive coverage of the Obama admin. See Top Obama official’s brother is president of CBS News, may drop reporter over Benghazi coverage. Maybe the prospect of a government spy job on her made it too untimely to give her the pink slip.

In any event, the problem with these sophisticated spyware programs, the FBI's CIPAV for example, is that they are undetectable by the off-the-shelf anti virus programs. And the really frightening aspect about this whole thing is the possibility that we all may have that type spyware lurking in our hard drives just waiting for the command to forward it to the NSA, the FBI, Eric Holder, Obama, China, or even the kid down the street.

Attkisson and CBS should do us all a favor and publish a way for us ordinary slobs to sniff out spyware like that on our own computers.

Texas DMV sells our private info

We've all probably received a telemarketing call from the seller of an extended auto warranty who knew exactly what make, year, and model of car we own. The one I received the other day ended after the telemarketer refused to disclose the name of the city from which she was calling. They knew exactly where I was but didn't want me to know where they were. Maybe that makes me a stalker for asking. Or maybe they were using my information illegally and didn't want to face too many questions.

They must have bought my information from the Texas DMV. CBS 11 DFW explains how easy the information is to get and even provides a link for a downloadable xlsx spreadsheet listing the names and addresses of the companies that bought the database in 2012. A list of the companies with Midland, Texas, addresses will follow in the addendum to this post.

The federal statute, Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994, 18 USC CHAPTER 123, is a prohibition with many exceptions. And a loose definition of the "driver safety" exception is probably the one the warranty seller was relying on.

Notice all the car dealers on the list below. One can imagine the sales representative typing in your plate number as you pull into the lot then viewing the DMV information about you as she watches you scrutinize the window sticker of that nice new BMW. But if the dealership subscribes to all the information available about us from private companies they probably know us as well as our own mothers. Or the NSA.

Addendum: The full list of the companies on CBS 11's list is quite long. For a sampling, here are the ones showing a Midland, Texas, address.

Action Wrecker Service
B & B Wrecker & Recovery
Basic Energy Services LP
Basin Auto Sales
Bi-Rite Auto Sales Inc
BMW of the Perian [sic] Basin
City of Midland / Code Administration
Farmers Insurance Group
GDR Investment Corp dba Golden Eagle Motors
Hubbard Certified
Linro Investments
Midland College Police Department
My Community Federal Credit Union
Nissan of Midland
Rogers Ford Sales Inc
Texas Car Company
Toyota of Midland
United Auto Sales

Dads, what to get yourself for Father's Day

One of the frustrating aspects of photographing with digital cameras is that the pictures always seem to look better on the little camera review screen than they do on the computer monitor. That makes it awkward if you expect to give the photos to someone, because you don't know whether color is off on the photo or on the monitor.

Apparently, it's a common problem, because several companies produce devices that will calibrate the colors on a monitor to some universal color standard. The one I bought was the DataColor Spyper4Pro. (Available at that link, Amazon.com, and elsewhere.)

It does require the user to register through their website in order to get a number to unlock the program, but other than that it's very user friendly. Just follow the instructions, plug in the USB, hang the little device over the monitor, and let it do its thing. When it has finished it will ask whether you want to keep the old or the new calibration. If you accept the new calibration there's a task bar button to switch it on or off, so the change isn't permanent unless you want it to be. Freedom, baby!

All in all, it's a handy device for photographers who don't want to spend a grand or more on that perfect monitor.

So when the kid says her tattoo colors aren't right in your photo, you and I will know it's the gawdawful tattoo, not the photo.

Who's assimilating whom?

One of the big issues many have with immigration reform is the fear that a subset of individuals to whom we've granted the right to vote will use that right to recreate in the US the circumstances that caused them to leave their former homes. Of course they wouldn't do it intentionally, but the politicians will tempt them with promises. And the temptation may be too hard to resist.

In the old days school kids were taught that the US was a melting pot and that immigrants blended with those already here. Eventually they were all Americans. Now it seems less of a melting pot than a school cafeteria plate with dividers to keep the foods from mixing.

There are groups around who encourage immigrants to resist assimilation. Witness the foreign flags waved at various demonstrations. Here, for example.

That leads us to the reason for today's post, Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) recently made a speech on the Senate floor in Spanish to help people who speak Spanish but not English to understand the proposed immigration bill. AmericanThinker.com makes this observation:

If Sen. Kaine is speaking Spanish on the Senate floor, then why aren't all DMVs, courthouses, classrooms, or even private businesses required to provide Spanish-language instruction or services? Many localities do. Anyone who knows a single thing about identity politics and the welfare state should understand that pandering begets more demands, and eventually an expanded welfare state.

This won't stop with Hispanics. Note that Sen. Kaine didn't speak Farsi, Japanese, Hindi, or Mandarin Chinese. But surely other minority groups won't sit by while Hispanics benefit from government services and the intangible benefits of being pandered to.

The lesson:

America is rapidly losing its identity as a nation and instead becoming an administrative entity for welfare provision. This awful process is sped along by the balkanization incited by Sen. Kaine, and every similar act of pandering, great and small.

Whose fault is it? John Fonte has an answer:

It is our fault, not theirs. For about 40 years since the 1970s, we have been sending the wrong message to newcomers. American elites (in universities, schools, the media, philanthropic organizations, corporations, government, and law) have promoted multiculturalism and ethnic-gender-linguistic group consciousness at the expense of Americanization, patriotic integration, and individual citizenship.

And he has a solution, however dreamy it might sound:

This would mean, first and foremost, removing federal barriers to patriotic assimilation by cutting off all government funding for multicultural and bilingual education and diversity training, and the like, before determining whether the we should embark on a new low-skilled guest-worker program.

We should promote a truly welcoming system of patriotic integration, based on equality of individual citizenship (not group rights), that would seize the moral high ground by removing all federal government barriers to full Americanization — and do so now, while immigration policy has captured national attention.

Will politicians go along with that? We can hope.

Unbelievable if true -- Wife tried to frame husband for ricin letters

What a stunning case. It's detailed at GMA Yahoo, to wit:

Shannon Richardson, 35, initially called the FBI claiming that her husband was the person who had sent a series of letters tainted with small amounts of the toxin ricin to Obama, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bloomberg's top gun-control lobbyist in Washington in late May.

But when investigators looked closer, they arrested Shannon Richardson June 7 at the couple's home in New Boston, Texas. The actress who played bit roles in movies and on TV shows, including the "Walking Dead," was charged with mailing a threatening communication to the president. She could face 10 years in federal prison if found guilty.

Investigators tripped her up in the interrogation, and apparently she confessed after a polygraph test. If all this is true, she wasn't as good an actress as she thought she was.

As for any larger lesson, is it any wonder that young men are shunning marriage these days?

On the other hand, it will be a giant step forward gender equality when the number of females in prison equals the number of males.

Oh yeah, happy father's day. And watch out for white powdery substances.

Sneaky farm bill hiding in the tall scandal weeds

What would you call a government program that guaranteed that you would receive 90% of your average revenue? There's a phrase for it, "corporate welfare." However, politicians call this farm bill give-away the Average Crop Revenue (ACRE) program.

There are so many scandals sucking the air out the room that there's hardly any space for publicity about bad spending bills. So the farm bill is sneaking through the weeds, and the budget hawks can't get attention. But some people are watching and writing. And here are a few with selected excerpts.

The Great Farm-Bill Ripoff:

Reform has been slow to come for a couple of reasons. The first is demosclerosis: A rich and powerful minority is highly motivated to lobby for the continuation of its benefits – benefits that do not much inconvenience most of the public on a day-to-day basis, which therefore has little reason to lobby against them.

The second reason is the unholy pact between farm-state interests and urban ones. For reasons far beyond the ken of mortal men, the largest portion of the quinquennial farm bill as measured in dollars has nothing to do with farming. Roughly 80 percent of its outlays go to food stamps. Rolling the two completely separate issues into a single bill ensures that lawmakers from conservative states will support handouts for city folk, and lawmakers for city folk will support handouts to farm interests.

The Costly and Outdated Farm Bill:

One of the most important reforms would be to separate these programs [food stamps and farm subsidies] into two different bills. This would make it more likely to get reform of agriculture policy, instead of politicians using these different issues with their different interest groups to maintain the status quo. ...

The costliest farm program is crop insurance, yet Congress does little to address these costs.

When farmers buy insurance, 62 percent of their premiums are paid for courtesy of the American taxpayers. Unlike other farm programs, there's no limit on the total subsidy received by farmers. According to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), a $40,000 limit on premium subsidies would have saved taxpayers $1 billion in 2011.

Fake savings: The 2013 House farm bill:

The data demonstrate that the House bill, with its crop insurance and PLC provisions, is essentially a bait and switch proposal. It exposes the taxpayer to substantial risk while, in combination with other federal subsidy programs, virtually guaranteeing that most farmers will always receive at least 90 percent of their expected farm incomes.

The only partisan split on this is over who gets the largess.

OK with NSA spying? Depends on which party holds the White House

Yesterday I was listening to some NPR show on which callers were talking about the NSA surveillance programs whereby agents have access to citizens phone records and internet usage. A female caller complained about the complainers and assured listeners that it wasn't a big deal because it was the federal government, and it was silly to think the government was going to do bad. I was probably not the only listener who remembered how we were expected to think that George W. Bush wanted to obliterate all our civil liberties.Today  we have a president who seems to be trying hard to do just that.

Here comes a very telling Pew Poll which reveals that 56% of the pollees say that NSA's telephone record dragnet is an acceptable way to investigate terrorism.

Not surprisingly, Republicans more strongly oppose NSA surveillance programs when there's a Democrat president, and the opposite is also true with Democrats more strongly opposed to the surveillance when there's a Republican president. So there's definitely a partisan component to the way people look at this.

A question that wasn't on the poll but which would be revealing would be whether the respondents believed the president would use the information for political purposes. I don't believe George Bush would have. But Obama? He has certainly given us plenty of reasons to think he would.

Refill the duck pond with its own water

This would make a great cartoon if only I could draw. Sigh.

Picture this. It's a government person sitting in a boat in a pond. He scoops out a bucket of water, then empties it on the other side of the boat. A duck floats by and asks, "What are you doing?" He says, "The pond is going dry, so I'm filling it up." 

That's basically what's happening with the duck pond at Wadley Barron Park in Midland, Texas. The local paper has been all over this. Seems that the city is in the process of drilling a couple of water wells near the pond with the stated purpose of refilling the pond to historic levels. The problem is that the pond if merely the visible part of the reservoir that sets the pond water level. So pumping water from the ground nearby simply takes from the same reservoir and puts it back by way of the pond.

Those of us with trees that nourish themselves from the underground water worry that eventually all the local people who are pumping water from that reservoir to dump on their yards will eventually deplete the reservoir and kill our trees. We talked about this a year ago as we worried about the undesirable consequences of too many straws sucking out of the same soda.

But that's life in the desert when people think it's an oasis.

Hey, here's an idea! Much of the water that comes out of our faucets is pumped from lakes several miles away. Those lakes are depleting too, so maybe we could form a bucket brigade. Fill up the buckets from our faucets, then pour it back into the lake. Repeat until full.

Memo to NSA agent assigned to read this blog

Here you are reading this blog as part of your job. Boy, did you draw the short straw. You have my sympathy.

Some of the posts here might be entertaining, and maybe that will make it worth your while. You'll be looking for key words like pressure cooker, bomb, anthrax, al Qaeda, jihad, ricin, Allah Akbar, bin Laden, Tea Party, patriot, guns, Bill of Rights, 2nd Amendment, flag, Constitution, border, etc. And you'll find some of them. But there's nothing criminal here.

However, you need to understand that your job is to protect the citizens from criminals, not make criminals out of citizens. There are many people in this country who believe the president is taking the nation in the wrong direction -- perhaps some of them are friends of yours who are afraid to speak out. They have a perfect right to think that, and this shouldn't be a news flash, they are free to speak it too.

A bloated government that is sucking up everyone's communications is sucking the freedom out of this country. You should take a stand against it not work to make it happen.

Furthermore, the President wants you to spy on political opponents and supply information that he can use to defeat the opposition. This is wrong, and deep down inside, you know it. Use your powers for good and not evil.

Don't make a mockery of your agency's Core Values: "NSA/CSS is unwavering in its respect for U.S. laws and Americans’ civil liberties—and in its commitment to accountability."

Non-profit seeks to arm citizens in high crime neighborhoods

The goal is to arm some residents who live in high crime neighborhoods with pump action shotguns and place signs around the neighborhood warning criminal what to expect should they break into one of those homes. The houses with guns aren't identified, and the theory is that not knowing who is and isn't armed will influence the criminals to avoid that entire neighborhood.

The organization is the Armed Citizen Project, and their first project was in Houston. The Cypress Creek Mirror has more:

The Armed Citizen Project is dedicated to facilitating the arming of law abiding citizens, and analyzing the relationship between increased firearm availability and crime rates. They are choosing mid-high crime neighborhoods in cities across America, and offering defensive weapons to homeowners that can pass a background check and will participate in safety, legal, and tactical training. The data collected will be used in the completion of a policy study that will measure the deterrent effects of firearms on crime. While a multi-year/multi-city will be conducted, the organization is first and foremost a charitable nonprofit, motivated by the desire to help fellow citizens. They have been training and arming single women/mothers and the elderly, and are now ready to arm entire neighborhoods.

Via FoxNews.com.

P.S. I wonder if they applied for an exemption from the IRS. If they did, it's almost a certainty that they would have been given the Tea Party treatment.

Rich guy problems -- almost makes me want to cry

The way it was first reported, Saudi Prince Alwaleed was upset because he believed he belonged on Forbes' list of top 20 billionaires, but Forbes denied him the honor. (He's #26.)

However, Businessinsider.com has the story at Prince Alwalweed [sic] Is Suing Forbes For Its Reports About The Size Of His Fortune.

It seems that a large chunk of his wealth is his 95% stake in Kingdom Corporation which Forbes valued at $10.6 billion, whereas the Saudi stock exchange valued it at $19.9 billion.

Businessinsider.com:

Forbes said it was concerned that for several years Kingdom’s share price had risen sharply over the period when it collected its valuation data.

It quoted an unnamed analyst who claimed that the Tadawul “is incredibly easy to manipulate”, and added that Kingdom is a particularly easy target because it only has a small free float.

Forbes also quoted a former Kingdom executive who said that making plays on the exchange is “the national sport” because “there are no casinos. It’s the gambling site of the Saudis”.

And there's the rub. Alwaleed didn't like being accused of stock market manipulation. So maybe he was defamed, and maybe he wasn't. But if a lawsuit goes forward, the discovery phase could yield Forbes a treasure trove of information about Alwaleed and how the Saudi stock exchange really works. Meanwhile, won't it be nice when we can shut off the flow of American dollars for Saudi oil?

Unintended consequences of the Verizon telephonic metadata FISA court order

Way back in another time, there was a leak and a newspaper article telling the world that Osama bin Laden's satellite phone was being tracked. That phone immediately ceased operation, and bin Laden was no where to be found.

So now we learn that a FISA court has ordered Verizon's phone records be turned over to the government. That was classified information, but it was such an outrageous intrusion on Americans' rights that someone thought the public should know about it. If the court order had not been such an overreach -- all calls wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls -- then we probably never would have heard about it.

Non-terrorist Verizon customers will probably wait out their contracts. But you can be sure that any terrorist using Verizon will dump the phone in favor of a burner phone.

Who will play Hillary in the movie?

The Guardian says Carey Mulligan is a front runner.

The movie is sure to put a pretty face on the former secretary of state who most likely will be running for president in 2016.

Where's Hillary? Two of these images are of Carey Mulligan, and one is of a young Hillary Clinton. Can you spot her?

Remember back when the pro-America films of the early 40s were called propaganda? Movie makers are still doing it, but now their perceived enemy is the political opposition. And with the low-information voters having their opinions shaped by popular media, these things can have an impact.

The good news -- the NSA might not actually be listening in on Verizon customers' phone calls

The Guardian reports that it obtained a classified order from the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court allowing the FBI to collect information from Verizon between April 25 and July 19, 2013, for the following:

... all call detail records or "telephony metadata" created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.

Emphasis added.

This particular order doesn't allow them to listen in on the calls, so presumably they are simply fishing for calls to or from people they suspect of something. And presumably once they made a connection then they would seek a wiretap order. So ordinary Americans might be justified in thinking that no one is listening in on their calls. But one never knows.

At least they are getting court orders. In the days of J. Edgar Hoover whether or not a court granted a wiretap order simply determined whether the wiretap results would go into the official file or a secret file.

Government employees Obama DOESN'T like -- Inspectors General

President Obama likes government employees. They are part of his loyal constituency, and as the IRS hearings have shown, they use their jobs to help him beat back his political opponents.

But there's one group of federal employees he doesn't like -- Inspector Generals.

From the Wall Street Journal: Joseph Schmitz: Obama's Inspector General Negligence. Excerpt:

For years, President Obama has neglected his duty to fill vacant inspector-general posts at the departments of State, Interior, Labor, Homeland Security and Defense and at the Agency for International Development. The president has nominated only two candidates to fill any of these six vacancies, and he subsequently withdrew both nominations. All told, an IG has been missing in action at each of those cabinet departments and the AID agency for between 18 months and five years.

At the State Department, for example, there was a former employee who was ineligible to serve in that position serving as "acting IG." So when the whistle blowers started talking, no one protected them from reprisals as an IG is supposed to do.

Mr. Schmitz again:

If the president continues to be derelict in his duty to nominate inspectors general for the Departments of State, Interior, Labor and Defense, and for the Agency for International Development, he should not expect to know about fraud, waste and abuse in his executive branch agencies—unless and until journalists inform him.

Hope and change, baby.

Via Betsy's Page.

Farm Bill taxes rocks

You might think that rocks would not be the farmer's friend. And you would be right. But that's where the government comes in.

Heritage.org points to this gem they found in the Farm Bill. It's a provision which creates a new board which will tax businesses in the natural stone industry and use the money for industry promotion. But by creating this new board for promotions, the existing industry groups can focus on lobbying.

The best part: "This is the very same model adopted by milk, beef, cotton, and some 15 other commodities that depend upon taxation rather than donation. Combined, they accumulate nearly $800 million dollars annually—most of which is recouped by businesses raising retail prices. The scheme has even spread to Christmas trees."

Never mind that it shouldn't be in the Farm Bill, it shouldn't be in any bill. The government shouldn't be in the business of collecting taxes from an industry for the purpose of promoting that industry. It's bad enough that we have to listen to ads promoting some government agency or agenda. We don't need government ads promoting some industry whose lobbyists had enough juice to get their favorite laws passed.

Bill Clinton's not so secret deal with Obama

According to this nypost.com article, Obama was afraid Bill Clinton would upstage him at the Democratic convention in 2012, so Clinton wasn't supposed to be part of the program. However, Obama's popularity waned a bit during the summer, and he decided he needed Clinton after all.

A couple of short paragraphs from the article:

A deal was struck: Clinton would give the key nominating speech at the convention, and a full-throated endorsement of Obama. In exchange, Obama would endorse Hillary Clinton as his successor. ...

But after his re-election, Obama began to have second thoughts. He would prefer to stay neutral in the next election, as is traditional of outgoing presidents.

Aw, the old double cross. Who would have thought Obama would break a promise?  Unfortunately, pronouncements from our president's lips have short shelf lives. By the way, if you like the medical insurance policy you have now, you can keep it.

It all sounds like something out of Political Animals. The writers are probably watching all this and wearing their pencils down to nubs taking notes.

Post script:
Megyn Kelly on Fox News gets commentary from some pundits -- watch video -- who suggest that there might have been an unspoken understanding without an explicit deal.