Saturday, August 31, 2002

[Civil Liberties Notes] QUOTING [Privacy Digest and Slashdot] 49%: "First Amendment Goes Too Far". The annual State of the First Amendment survey, released on Thursday, had found that just under half of the Americans surveyed felt that the First Amendment guarantees too much freedom. The 49% figure, according to the center, is a ten percent jump since September 11. The survey found that between forty and fifty percent of Americans supported increased surveillance of religious groups, bar criticism of government actions, and monitor muslim citizens particularly closely. Forty percent also found the press too aggressive in questioning the government in the war on terror. More information at the Sacramento Bee. The report is available for download. [Privacy Digest and Slashdot] FROM [Civil Liberties Notes] From the report QUOTE 40% said they have too little access to information about the war on terrorism, 16% said there’s too much. 48% said there’s too little access to government records, 8% believe there’s too much. Many Americans are unable to name the five freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment. The percentages of those responding who were able to identify individual freedoms: 58% — freedom of speech 18% — freedom of religion 14% — freedom of the press 10% — freedom of assembly/association   2% — freedom of petition UNQUOTE I would like to see a survey that breaks it down by Religion.  What percentage of Baptists think the government needs to be spying on the Catholic Church, what percent of Catholics think we should spy on Christian Fundamentalists, etc. and most importantly, what percentage of people think the government should spy more on their own denomination. Since in this survey, as published by the Sacramento California Bee, QUOTE Republican respondents were more likely than Democrats or Independents to see the news media as too aggressive in seeking war information from government officials. UNQUOTE I would like to see how this compares when it is Democrat in the White House.  Does that reverse their opinions, or do they feel the same way when it is the other political party getting most of the criticism. I agree that loose lips sink ships.  I think that people who publish information that puts lives of our military or allies at risk, or give aid and comfort to the enemy should be prosecuted, but it is a matter of abuse of freedom, which is a slippery slope to define.  There is stuff that is Ok to say one place but not another.  My friend John, I see him across on other side of a crowd, I shout Hi Jack to get his attention.  If this is in an airport, I get arrested. 5:36:21 PM

[Ernie the Attorney] QUOTE Political candidates, your websites may soon be regulated -  It's being considered, according to this article. UNQUOTE [Ernie the Attorney] Reading the Washington Post article, that Ernie has shared with us, indicates to me that some day Bloggers will need a reminder calendar.  The general election is now X days away so STOP writing about the politicians until after the election.  Posting political commentary may become illegal on the eve of elections, whether it is by people inside or outside of politics. Who will be accountable when this law is violated?  There might be a discussion forum with many people talking about many topics, including people in other countries who are ignorant about our election laws.  An innocent comment about some stupid thing seen in the news media, by an e-friend from another nation, could mean a published post that is for or against a particular candidate, ending up on a web site within the X days window when that is banned. They debated, but backed away from, the notion of regulating hyper links to sites that give out information about political candidates.  They may return to this topic again, since deep linking is a hot topic with lots of law suits that will change the fabric of our e-society rules. 5:26:13 PM

See Banking Stories, collection of humorous and unfunny stories of personal experiences, and those of close contacts about things that can go wrong with our bank accounts. I have been getting e-mail bounces when I sent recent stuff to V of TYR, such as the funny story (I think it was funny) about visiting bank that is using those vaccum tube thingies that we see at many drive ins, also for walk ins, and sending the stuff (my stuff, like driver's license I loaned them for identification purposes) to the wrong customer (the guy in the bank booth NEXT to me).  So then V e-mails me to ask if I Ok, she not heard from me in a while (because most this week I had bad indigestion, and now that I almost well, her e-mail can send but not receive), so I voice telephone her to let her know about her e-mail down, perhaps until Tuesday, because of the holiday weekend. She reminds me (good reminder), now that I have more desk space around my PC, would be good idea to have a basket of fruits and veggies nearby, so when I need to munch on something, it is not chips but more healthy stuff.  I have not been exercising like I ought to, but I have been doing more sit down meals at quality places like Red Lobster and less food from drive through places.  My sister calls them outlets of The Greasy Spoon Chain, and V is not that kind.  Most meals at home are Microwaved Healthy Choice that come out of the green boxes. I still suspect that my indigestion this week was food related, but it could also have been nerves from worrying about the new furniture, and accumulated worries over some work-related stuff, that ought to stay confidential.  I don't think I can tell anyone about the UPS adventure without flapping my mouth inappropriately about someone or about several people.  One person in particular does such a great job that it is really cruel to go blabbing to a lot of people about one oops attributed to him. 3:49:31 PM

Al's new PC furniture has been installed and PC reassembled all systems checked out (cable modem, dial up backup modem, printer, mouse, keyboard, speakers).  A few things ended up with some mistakes but this is to be somewhat expected because after checking out many places in and around Evansville that are in the business, and each had some not nice aspects so it was which is the lesser of these various evils, Lesa checked with the place that does office furniture where she works, and they were happy to have my business.  So as some decision was made, it went between Al, Lesa, the Office Connection in Vincennes Indiana (officeconnection@charter.net), HON industries that makes the best office furniture, but originally I did not think I could afford that, but you know, when you carefully look at the catalog and say I not need this that frill, just go for lots of work space, sturdiness, dimensions that are an almost perfect fit in my apartment, we end up with great quality. Earlier this week Normandy Arms Apartments shampooed the carpet where we had cleared out furniture to make room for this.  I told them that getting this big space cleared out is once in a blue moon, and an excellent time to fit in this operation. Hey, it fits fantastic (no error measuring dimensions), all the wall plugs are in use, there is a nice space between corner unit and my old book case on the right, which is perfect size for halogen overhead lamp and waste basket, the computer is working fine.  There is some stuff on the floor, like the UPS but it is not sitting on the carpet but on little wooden things on wheels, and there are more waiting so when the PC tower goes down, it will not be sinking into the carpet.  Patricia found those for me.  They are just great. The Vincennes crew will have to do another visit later because: one of the shelves sticks out too far (what got packed is not what was ordered), and jabs my left side; some cables from back of PC to master control (which needs to be where I can push the buttons) won't reach from where we planned to put the PC so temporarily the PC is on top of the shelf that will have to be replaced ... longer cable coming; a higher chair was suggested but I like the chair I have, so we will be getting an under shelf keyboard tray and perhaps also mouse on it. Overall I feeling great.  The total price was less than I anticipated (because I not remembered exactly right from all the yes no pieces re-thinking).  They assembled it for me, which took longer than I thought it would, they disconnected all cables on my PC and reassembled connections when done, however there is one thing left over that we not know where it goes to.  Everything is working, so speculation is high as to what that for. Hmm, I see a box that we decided not to open because Hon sent the wrong kind of drawer, and Office Connections did not take it back with them.  There may be other follow up.  As I come across odd cables, I moving them all to be one location, so more easy to find spare when need one.  I am going to leave one of my Y2K flash lights stuck in the electric system under the new desk, so the next time I need a PC service call, the spare light is right there for under desk illumination. The back panel is the kind of stuff you can stick thumb tacks into.  Above monitor etc. there are shelves running 13" deep and 40" wide, and there is another just like it, a little wider, to the left above the shelf that will be replaced.  Those shelves are two layers so other stuff can go on the very top.  Basically it is a corner unit, and a left side unit, and I have an old but sturdy book case to the right.  Before ordering this, I visited approx 20 different places that sold furniture suitable for PC, and at some of them looked at several alternatives. I need to do a bit of adjustment to get essentials off the UPS not the surge protector power strips at the back center where wall plug got covered up, but this connection through first.  Then the piles of stuff that used to be on my old furniture, that did not have as much work space, will come back in pieces, as I figure out what will go where, and allow space for growth in various project piles.  I use box lids from computer paper quite heavily, but now if some are going to be on top shelf, I need a heavy marker so end of box lid can have word or two what it is all about. The old furniture was donated to the humane society of Lawrenceville Illinois, to be used or auctioned, at their discretion. Main reasons for this upheaval: The old furniture had done me OK when only use for my home PC was personal entertainment, but now as I am moving into part time work from home, the inefficiencies of a home office designed just personal use was getting in my way. The PC before the current one was not a tower, and it sat on table and ran Ok, then current one is tower on floor, because too heavy for my flimsy table, but I have wall to wall carpet and this is air cooled from bottom and air from bottom, and it sinks into carpet. I had several book cases that were Ok except not super sturdy, so I was like only 1/3 to 1/2 using the vertical space, so there's all this vertical space wasted, and it is all round my PC.  I needed to trade up to sturdiness, where I can use all my vertical space. Down the road when I get my next PC, I want the infrastructure in place so it can be hooked up without the inefficiencies of what came before. 2:17:30 PM

A [puzzle] here ... has someone defaced Radio Userland home pages to say something not nice about RU?  No, someone has created a category by that name to say something not nice.  I wonder how many people will look at this and think this is really published by RU?  I think this sort of thing at best is in bad taste, and should not be encouraged.  It is one thing to voice a negative opinion about some product or someone else opinion, that's freedom of e-speech.  But to make a site look like it is RU saying that RU products are no good, that is malicious mischef.  Doing it at start of a long weekend means RU might not see it right away.  I only saw it because I checked recent updates for interesting site names to visit. 2:06:36 PM

Check [City of Winona now taxes rain water] for full details and the role the Federal Government played in this, so you can figure how likely it will be that this measure will soon pass to other cities around the country.  The deal is that water that gets into storm sewer drains in front of people property can carry various contaminents like pet poo poo, and it has to go through some kind of city filtration to clean the water.  So the tax rate for each property is based on the total amount of water that drains into the city system, irrespective of how contaminated it is.  Water your lawn, clear snow and it melts, rain water, all of that will be taxed.  Now I think the cheap solution might be to put some barrier at edge of your property to invite the water to puddle and irrigate your front yard in the dry times. 1:57:16 PM

© Copyright 2002 Al Macintyre.