In short, one might conclude that all knowledge, wisdom, and wit are confined to those who inhabit New York City, Washington DC, or Hollywood.
As I creep inexorably toward nearly 70 years of life experience - which was gained in many cities in the U.S. and in about 30 foreign countries, I decided to put down some ongoing thoughts in a series I call "The View From the Outback." That experience has included the U.S. Marines, law school, the ATF, the CIA, Fortune 500 executive, writer, public speaker, educator, editor, and publisher - for openers. For over 20 years, I have written articles off and on for various magazines and newspapers. I've had an enormous number of letters published in major national publications. The Outback is the rural area in Northeast Texas where I have lived for the past 11 years. Each Saturday (or so)I will attempt to post a new set of musings from the Outback.
In the Outback for September 20, 2001, I noted the lax security at small General Aviation airports. Since then, there have been at least two private airplanes stolen. In Idaho, a man stole a small plane and flew so low that he snapped power lines. He dropped a pipe bomb from the aircraft, but it did not explode. Near Houston, teens from an upscale suburb stole a plane, buzzed a high-school football game, and then dropped toilet paper. Real cute!
Each day, I usually browse MSNBC.com and several of the links. My ad-blocking software (adSubtract.com) showed a tally the other day that it had blocked 151 ads and 48 popup windows in one short browsing session. MSNBC is a cooperative venture of Microsoft and NBC. Do these two successful giants need to harass their visitors with as many as 151 ads per session? Another site that runs up astronomical ad counts is ZDNET.com (368 ads and 134 Java scripts in one session!). Paul Allen, a former Microsoft billionaire, is a major financial player in ZDNET. I submit that NBC, Microsoft, and Paul Allen's ZDNET could well afford to provide their sites as a public service. Instead, they are among the two most aggressive and intrusive with ads of the hundreds of sites I visit.
Have you noticed that you are looking more and more at your clocks and watches when TV programs start? Is your watch set wrong? No, TV programs have begun to start when they get good and ready. It used to be that when the sweep-second hand hit 59 seconds before the half hour or hour, the networks went to black and a new program started exactly on the minute. You could depend on it. Now, programs may start a minute or so before the hour. One network began a major drama show the other night at two minutes after the hour! Two minutes. What's going on? For one thing, it is messing up VCR taping and Digital Personal TV recorder timing. You may miss the entire intro to a show. You may miss the "punch line" of your favorite comedy show that you recorded. Some of it may be marketing ploys. Starting a show early tends to get you hooked and then it is too late to turn the channel to see what else is on. The reason for starting two minutes late has escaped me. Maybe if the previous show was a strong lead-in, the network wants to keep you tuned to the channel until after the competing shows have started. Most people are happy if their clocks are within five minutes of the correct time. But for those who use the WWV clocks and other precise sources of time, it is very disconcerting. I will drop a note to the major networks and ask them if there is a "plan" or are they just getting sloppy - like so much else in our culture. If you get an answer first, please share it with me.
NBC is working on a pilot for a TV comedy show starring Adam Sandler, Norm Macdonald, and Jon Lovitz. I predict the show will be a disaster and that Jeff Zucker (NBC Entertainment president) will regret that he said, "We're thrilled to be in business with Adam Sandler and his first foray into TV." Adam Sandler is a clown and a buffoon. Norm Macdonald has no discernible talent. He was horrible on Saturday Night Live. His TV show was cancelled. Jon Lovitz is a near comedic genius and, of course, an old SNL regular. I feel sorry for Mr. Lovitz, who is the only one of the three with any real talent. I could be wrong, but so far I have done pretty well. It will take until the fall of 2002 to find out. Just thought I would get my two-bits worth in early. I will apologize if I am wrong. Not much chance.
Investigators seized about $100 million in fake Windows operating system CDs (nearly 31,000 copies). The bogus software came from Taiwan. Private computer end users are bridling at the new Windows XP authentication for installations, which will prevent a personal user from installing one copy of XP on say a desktop in the den and on a laptop. More effort should be focused on rolling up the "criminals" who produce perhaps billions of dollars in fake software, and less time alienating home users, many of whom cannot afford to pay for multiple copies of XP. Many people will probably wait to buy XP until somebody posts a scheme on the Internet to crack the XP install authentication scheme. There is an old axiom in the law that people will obey only those laws that are reasonable. Microsoft has alienated its home-user base (and corporations for that matter). In the end, the alienation will push people who normally play by all the software rules to start searching the Internet for an XP authentication "workaround." Microsoft would not go broke letting families install one copy of XP on more than one home computer. Multiple home installs of Windows never affected their enormous profits in the past. Nobody likes a bully. And a greedy bully, to boot. Microsoft cannot seem to learn that lesson. Their day of reckoning will come. There will be dancing in the streets, just like the day the Berlin Wall fell.
The Dubya and Vlad Show
President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a talk and took questions at the highschool in Crawford, Texas, which is near the Bush ranch. It was carried live on a Dallas radio station, and I sat at the post office in my truck mesmerized by the event. Some snippets were shown later on national TV, including on the BBC in London. C-SPAN TV did a rebroadcast. The totality of the event was staggering to a guy who spent a good bit of his life "fighting the Communist menace."
Putin said that Russians knew that Texas was the most important state in the United States. That was probably the closest Mr. Bush came to kissing Vlad on the mouth during the visit. Mr. Putin added, seriously, that Russia had a long history of dealing in Texas with mutual interests in oil production, space (the NASA space center in Houston, for example), and with high tech companies in Texas.
It was an extremely informal and relaxed presentation. Vladimir wore a western belt buckle. Both presidents made jokes, often on themselves. There was a lot of arms around shoulders and big smiles. The questions from the students were thoughtful. Mr. Putin commented on the quality of the questions and what that said about American youth, etc. Mr. Putin had been with the KGB, and everyone assumes that makes him evil and cold. He was affable and a little bit of a pixie. He was effusive in his praise for Mr. Bush's handling of the war on terrorism and other matters. He raved about the Bar B Que dinner at the ranch, and on and on.
Of course, many of the TV political pundits said that it was a love fest, but they wondered if Putin was "faking it." If Mr. Putin was faking it, he is one of the great actors of our time. My judgement is that these two guys admire and respect each other - and have a hell of a lot of fun when they get together. Cynics be damned.
As a former CIA agent, who once considered Russia and the KGB to be mortal enemies, I sat in the truck with tears streaming down as I listened to this remarkable piece of history taking place at the highschool in Crawford. There was a bit of hyperbole from both Bush and Putin. But make no mistake. This was a moment to put in the time capsule of history.
I saw no media coverage about the relationship of Laura Bush and the lovely Mrs. Putin. My guess is that they got along famously, and Mrs. Putin is at a minimum taking back a recipe for Pecan pie. And that the two first ladies will be e-mailing each other and talking on the phone a good bit. What do I base this on? How could anybody not like Laura Bush?
The Global Community
If you have any doubt that we live in a global community, consider these vignettes. On the morning of November 12, 2001, at about 9 a.m. I went to my ranch to fire up the ham-radio station, with the prospect of talking with several friends or meeting new friends in Europe and the Middle-East. The first station I heard was from Belgium. As soon as we exchanged signal reports and names, the Belgian asked what was going on with the plane crash in Queens. Huh? I never watch TV in the morning, or listen to the radio in the morning unless I am driving to town. I have no TV or broadcast radio at the ranch. When I explained the situation, my friend began to tell me about the crash. Stunned, I excused myself and raced back to the house to turn on the digital satellite recorder and let it run.
Upon reflection, I thought how amazing that someone in Belgium tells me not about a plane crash in the U.S., and casually says it is in "Queens." Not the East Coast, not New York, but Queens.
The next day, a friend in Macedonia said that he had been reading my web page. Another ham in Europe said that he was on the Internet and looking at the photo of me and my station - as we talked. He had a DSL line. Hams all over the world have CD-ROM atlases or paper atlases of the United States. They often tell me that they see a settlement on the map near my ham radio station that is literally just a junction of two roads. I tell them that I see that the railroad runs through their small village, and so on.
I get e-mails from hams in Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Japan, and on and on. The other day, I got an e-mail from a Short Wave Listener in England who gave me a signal report of a contact he monitored that I had that day with my friend Dragan in Macedonia. Dragan, by the way, is a TV cameraman. A friend in Scandinavia gave me his cell phone number and told me that the number would "work" in the States if I called it. Val, in Moscow, asked me to e-mail him the results of a ham-radio contest that were published in an American magazine. I found a .PDF file of the entire article and e-mailed it to him.
You hear that there is a lot of anti-American sentiment in the world. Some of that is true. But, every day, we hear hams calling "CQ Stateside," which means that they only want to talk with ham-radio operators in the United States.
Being a ham-radio operator gives one a unique window on the world. It is like having your own press bureau in 250 countries. It is truly a global community. And we all get along. Nations should take some notes.
Please Don't Tell Us That Nobody Could Have Predicted the WTC Disaster
In the Outback for Nov. 4, 2001 ("U.S. Government in a Frantic Scramble to Catch Up"), I listed a series of events since 1983 that should have alerted us to the potential for terrorist strikes on our soil. I urge that you review the list of events I posted, after you finish reading this Outback.
To those politicians and others who say we could not have anticipated that terrorists would hijack an airliner and fly it into a building, I say, please don't insult our intelligence. All of this talk about the attacks being "beyond anyone's imagination," or "we never had a hint that such a thing could happen." and so on, is garbage. These pronouncements are intended to cover up for the failure of the U.S. government to act decisively in the face of growing evidence of a great threat to our homeland. Here are a couple of more things to add to that list.
In 1994, Algerian terrorists planned to fly an airliner into the Eiffel tower in Paris. The plot was foiled when the Air France pilot (en-route from Algeria) landed in Marseilles, France, telling the hijackers he needed to take on fuel. French commandos stormed the plane and killed the four hijackers. None of the highjackers were pilots. The terrorists learned a lesson - get flight lessons.
Tom Clancy wrote a novel ("Executive Orders"), I think in 1997, in which a terrorist flew a Boeing 747 into the U.S. Capitol building as the President was addressing a joint session of Congress, in effect decapitating the government. Mr. Clancy must now be having some sleepless nights. It was only a novel, a book of fiction, you say. Well, the plot was entirely feasible and should have set off some alarm bells in the government. But, nothing happened to thwart this threat, as far as we can tell. Now, government officials are sitting down with Hollywood writers and others to brainstorm plots and ideas of how terrorists might attack us. What this tells us is that the U.S. government, including the FBI, CIA and the Congress have no imagination. Asking Hollywood for terrorist scenarios? How pathetic.
Write Your Congressman - Good Luck
If you have lost track, most of the mail to Congress for the past few weeks is sitting in a decontamination facility in the Midwest. Don't bother to write your Congressman, Congresswoman, or Senator. It will be long, long time before timely mail service is resumed to Capitol Hill.
I had an idea about using ATM machines to monitor electronic immigrant and visitor visa cards that are being proposed (Outback for Oct. 28, 2001). A friend, whose opinion I value, suggested that it was a really good idea. I tried to send the information in my Outback column by e-mail to both Sen. Feinstein and Senator Kyl (who are sponsors of the electronic visa bill), from their respective web pages. Both messages were rejected. Either their servers were overloaded, or they screen e-mail from zip codes outside their state and kick it back (you have to fill in a long form).
It is going to get worse as the Congress begins to utilize automated e-mail systems that send out "canned" answers to requests, based on the subject line or a scan (by computer) of the general content of your message. And get worse as computer servers reject messages from the "wrong" zip code or state. Congressional offices have used "boilerplate" paragraphs and entire letters for years to respond to common topics by mail. You can usually spot them, they are quite long. As if a lot of BS that was not responsive to your question was going to make up for a short but meaningful answer to your question.
A while back, I tried to e-mail some thoughts on a proposed home satellite TV bill to various members of Congress. I got through to many, but was appalled and angered at some sites where they said they would only accept mail from people from "their" states. There is something terribly wrong here. The Congress represents America. Especially in the Senate, each senator's vote directly affects every citizen of this country. For any elected person to say they only represent those who voted for them, or might in the next election, is repulsive and arrogant.
Years ago, I carried on correspondence with a variety of people on the Hill and in the White House. Only one or two were from Texas. Senator Joe Biden, a Democrat from Maryland, answered me thoughtfully on gun control. Senator Alan Simpson, a Republican from Wyoming, sent me several personal responses to letters. As did Bob Dole of Kansas, and Barry Goldwater of Arizona, and Jesse Helms of North Carolina, to name a few. They did not discriminate against me because I lived outside their state and they did not question which party I voted with. Those days are apparently slipping into the mist of a bygone era. It's now all dollars and cents and votes. And automated answers, if you get one at all.
You can still probably phone someone on the Hill, if you don't get a busy signal. It used to be that they kept a tally sheet on important issues. You could call and talk for 10 minutes, but all you would probably get was a check on the tally sheet - For or Against. I will not spend my money to call someone who works for the American people. There is something wrong with that concept. Those folks in Washington have free postage. They can flood you with newsletters and political propaganda with postage paid for by your tax dollars. But, it is now nearly a one-way street. The Congress ought to have an 800 number where citizens could call to voice opinions or ask questions - and no voice mail. They might have to divert some of the staff who handle queries from the thousands of lobbyists. Another reason for campaign-finance reform.
Some people in Congress publish their FAX numbers. I would guess those lines are pretty busy with position papers and pleadings from lobbyists. You might try at 3 a.m. but most good FAX software allows for delayed transmission to take advantage of lower night-time phone rates. You will have lots of company.
I would have no problem with a filtering system on Congressional e-mail that could spot SPAM, that is, an organized effort to flood someone with identical messages on a given topic. But, instead of retreating behind third-party screening and using auto-response software, they ought to be seeking to be more open to e-mail. Let them know - if you can figure out some way to get through.
If you do find a way to get through, keep it short, to the point, and if you have a complaint, offer a solution.
The Mystery Screen Crawl on PBS
In my continuing battle with screen "crawls" on TV, I sent an e-mail to the NewsHour on PBS (newshour@pbs.org) complaining about a crawl that ran about a third of the way up on the screen during a NewsHour broadcast for Nov. 9, 2001. The crawl was promoting a PBS show that was to take place several days in the future! I got an e-mail from MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, which said in part:
Mr. Rhodes,
Thanks for your e-mail today regarding a crawl on the NewsHour. May I ask on what station or channel you receive the NewsHour? We have made a deliberate decision to avoid crawls of any sort on The NewsHour (especially in this latest climate of crawl everywhere). ....
(end of excerpt)
It was signed by a real person - with his title. I wrote back and said that I have two PBS channels on my satellite TV list, but that I was pretty sure that the offender was on a certain channel (which I noted). I suggested that if he could find the culprit and get a confession, I would make a modest contribution to PBS. So far, I have not heard back. PBS does not seem to have many crack investigators. I told them the time, the day, the program, the nature of the crawl info, and that it had to be on one of two channels. The good news is that somebody agrees with me about the obnoxious crawls on TV.
Suggested Reading From Past Columns
(Right-click on an underlined link and select: "Open in New Window" to leave this window in place)
Terrorism
"Enviro-Terrorists Operate With Near Impunity - But Not for Long?" Saturday, Nov. 10, 2001
"Hackers Are Terrorists, Too" Saturday, Nov. 10, 2001
"U.S. Government in a Frantic Scramble to Catch Up" Sunday, Nov. 4, 2001
"Americans Succumbing to a Climate of Fear" Sunday, October 28, 2001
"Secure ID Cards and Visas" Sunday, October 28, 2001
"Anti-Terrorism Bill Sniping Begins" Sunday, October 28, 2001
"Various reflections on the events of Sept. 11, 2001 Thursday, Sept 20. Must read Outback re Sept 11 Events
"The World Trade Center & Pentagon Attacks!" Update on Sept. 11 to Outback for September 8, 2001
Global warming and environmental debate:
"Rush to Glacier National Park Before All the Glaciers are Gone" September 8, 2001
"Chipping Away at the Global Warming and Environmental Alarmists," September 1, 2001
"John Stossel And ABC's 'Tampering With Nature,'" June 29, 2001
"The Kyoto Protocol & Global Warming - A Monumental Scam?" June 16, 2001
"Public Interest Groups With Sometimes Very Little Public Interest," May 12, 2001
"Environmentalism For Dummies - Part II," April 21, 2001
"Environmentalism For Dummies," April 7, 2001
"Environmental and Animal-Rights Terrorists," March 24, 2001
Politics:
"My Friend Senator Jesse Helms," September 8, 2001
"Forget Liar & Adulterer - Cong. Gary Condit is Simply Stupid," September 1, 2001
"Government Waste and Fraud," August 18, 2001
"President Bush's Excellent Adventure," June 29, 2001
"The Bush Budget - Fighting Over 4% Growth Versus 8% Growth Is Nonsense," April 21, 2001
"The Chinese Demand for an Apology Regarding the Aircraft Accident is Preposterous," April 7, 2001
"Campaign Finance Reform - A Senatorial Catharsis - And National Snow Job," March 31, 2001
"Florida Secretary Of State Literally Begged Networks Not To Call Election Early," March 24, 2001
"Charlton Heston Speech at Harvard," March 10, 2001 (about free speech, PC, et al.)
"The Ever-Expanding First Amendment," January 26, 2001
"Bush Administration Needs To Review The Mission Of Federal Law Enforcement," January 26, 2001
"New York, What Were You Thinking?" November 13, 2000 (Re: Hillary Clinton)
"Lessons Learned In Election 2000?" November 13, 2000
"How the Federal Government Corrupts the Constitution to Intrude Into Your Life," October 30, 2000
"Let's All Make Fun of the Dumb Guy From Texas," December 15, 2000 (Pres. Bush)
The Media
"How the Media Should Cover a Covert War" Sunday, November 4, 2001
Prescription drugs - advertised on TV - abuses in the pharmaceutical industry - supplements:
"Prescription Drug Plans," September 8, 2001
"Baycol Cholesterol Drug Withdrawn From the Market," August 18, 2001
"Prozac Gets New Life!" July 28,2001
"The New Cholesterol Guidelines - Everybody Gets A Pill," July 7, 2001
"Bitter Pills To Swallow," June 2, 2001
"The Drug Companies Continue Their Assault On Your Pocketbook," May 19, 2001
"FDA Questions Practice of TV Ads for Prescription Drugs," March 31, 2001
"Prescription for Disaster," September 11, 2000
Health - General:
"Trans Fatty Acids - The Hidden Fat," August 4, 2001
"Your Body Clock," August 4, 2001
"My Medical Writing Credentials - Such As They Are," July 7, 2001
"The 'Eggs Are Bad For You' Alarmists Strike Again," May 12, 2001
"Herbal Remedies, Supplements, And Alternative Therapies," September 18, 2000
Computers and Technology:
"Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)" Saturday, Nov. 10, 2001
"LCD Flat Panel Displays & Dual Monitor Video Boards," August 18, 2001
"DishNetwork's Personal Video Recorder Dish Pro 501," July 28, 2001
"Internet Via Satellite," June 16, 2001
"The Internet in China," April 21, 2001
"Mark Cuban is the Posterboy for Dotcom Mania," April 21, 2001
Interesting Books to Read:
"Your Body Clock," August 4, 2001
"Body of Secrets," by James Bamford, July 28, 2001 (About NSA)
A case history of horrendous abuse by Federal law enforcement:
"FBI Sniper At Ruby Ridge My Be Tried For Manslaughter," June 9, 2001.
Crime, guns, gun-control:
"Real Anxiety - Texas Jail Inmates Break Out Weekly" Saturday, Nov. 10, 2001
"Eyewitness Testimony is Suspect," August 18, 2001
"The AMA Is Losing Its Way," June 29 2001
"Doctors Have Written the Wrong Prescription for Guns," April 14, 2001
"The FBI and the Hanssen Case," March 10, 2001
"FBI Director Freeh Stays On," January 26, 2001 (Some clues to recent FBI failures)
"Aircraft Cockpit Security," December 29, 2000
Late Night TV Cruel Humor, et al.:
(I quit watching late night in disgust, so there are no new articles on the subject.)
"David Letterman Grovels For The Colombians," May 19, 2001
"Are Leno And Letterman Using The Same CD-ROM For Constructing Jokes?" May 12, 2001
"Late Night Comedians Struggle To Lampoon Bush," May 5, 2001
"Late-Night TV Sick Humor," August 28, 2000
"Late-Night TV Political Comedy," August 14, 2000
Hollywood, Entertainers, Celebrities:
"Celebrities Rush to Move Overseas in Protest of Bush Victory," January 5, 2001
"The Mother of all Hollywood Activists," December 22, 2000 (Jane Fonda)
"Elton John, Political Pundit - Druggie - Drunk - Compulsive Spender," Dec. 15, 2000
Telemarketing:
"Telemarketers, Caller-ID, et al.," August 4, 2001
"Rid Yourself of Telemarketers," October 23, 2000
Miscellaneous:
"TV 'Crawls' - Annoying and Distracting"Sunday, October 28, 2001
"The Decline in the American Work Ethic," May 12, 2001
"Made in USA," January 5, 20001
"How Many Gigabytes in Your Brain?," December 15, 2000
COPYRIGHT 2001 Richard C. Rhodes
You are welcome to quote sections from this page - or the whole page, as long as the source URL is included. Of course, I would be flattered if anyone linked to this page. It is very hard to be the writer, editor, fact checker, copy editor, and publisher of anything. So, I welcome corrections of fact, notes of misspelled words, and so on.
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Richard C. Rhodes
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