The View From the Outback
© 2000 Richard C. Rhodes
A great deal of what we read in newspapers, magazines, and books, and what we see in the movies and on TV is written and produced in New York City or Los Angeles. Much of the "political wisdom" comes from the PR machines of the White House, the Congress, and from the Washington media corps. In short, one might conclude that all knowledge, wisdom, and wit are confined to those who inhabit New York City, Washington DC, or Hollywood. I am now a senior citizen, in my 7th decade. My experience was gained in many cities in the U.S. and in about 30 foreign countries. 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. Some insights come from talking with ham-radio operators in every major country and such idyllic places as the Cook Islands. 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 15 years. Since most visits to my pages come from searches, I am no longer trying to keep on a regular schedule for updating the Outback. Click on a Topic to go directly to that topic. April 26, 2006: Are your children misbehaving? Here is a sure remedy. Tell the children that if they do not shape up, you will hire this woman as their Nanny.
April 26, 2006: The continuing reporting that the U.S. may be planning on using a "low-yield" nuclear bunker-buster bomb(s) to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities is sheer idiocy, if true. In the letter to the WSJ for April 25, David L. Hobson wrote in part: "The 'bunker buster,' officially known as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), is not a low-yield nuclear weapon.... In fact, we are talking about a highly destructive weapon that the National Academy of Sciences found could result in more than one million casualties and in thousands of tons of radioactive fallout by projecting blast debris into the atmosphere." If Iran cannot be dissuaded from producing a nuclear bomb by diplomacy or sanctions, then I repeat my comment that if anyone is going to "take out" the nuke facilities, let it be Israel. Otherwise, if Iran gets a nuclear-weapon capability, let the U.S. back off and remember the lesson of the Cold War. We sat poised on the annihilation of much of the planet with the Soviet versus United States nuclear missiles and bombs at the ready. Remember why this did not happen. MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction. If Iran gets nukes, it knows that it will be able to fire only one at an adversary before it is scorched from the face of the Earth. The Mullahs and the Iranian president may be radical, but they are not stupid. And if we would spend more time trying to help the youth of Iran foment a democratic revolution, the money would be better spent. The world-wide consequences of the United States bombing Iran to take out it nuke factories is almost beyond calculation. Forget an invasion by the U.S., since we are already over-extended militarily. April 26, 2006: TiVo has announced a new box for $99 (after rebate and service activation) that will record two shows at once. Wow! What a breakthrough. DishNetwork has for several months offered a triple-tuner HiDef Digital Video Recorder (Vip 622) that can record two satellite shows and a third from over-the-air HDTV at the same time (for a lease fee of $299). You can play back a previously-recorded show while recording another, pause live shows, rewind, and so on. It also has a standard-def output to run to an older analog set in the bedroom or exercise room, with a separate UHF remote. This DishNetwork box will ruin you for all other types of TV viewing and recording. For example, while recording both Leno and Letterman, you can go back and forth from one show to ther other - passing by commercials, of course. Bypassing particularly air-headed guests, screeching and unintelligible musical guests, and the commercials, you can view both shows in about 30-35 minutes. At $99, one must assume that the dual-tuner TiVo will record only standard-definition TV, not HiDef. Although the monthly-connect fee for the new TiVo is not clear from the press release, it is probably higher than the around $6 per-month charged by DishNetwork. The DishNetwork 622 will record both standard-def and HiDef from satellite (in both the older MPEG2 compression standard and the new HiDef MPEG4) and in HiDef from OTA signals. April 23, 2006: Until today, I had never been to MySpace.com, but all the publicity got me curious. I went browsing to see if there were any women online who were over 60. As a guest, all I could find were profiles for ladies 18-35. If your young child is visiting MySpace, you might question their standards. One lady (?) who claims to be 27-years old and with an income of $250.000 or more, uses a photo of a bare butt for her photo. Her MySpace name is "Cunnilingus." Oddly, she has only one (1) friend, Tom. Tom's picture is identical to the one posted for the Co-founder of MySpace, Tom Anderson. Isn't that precious? I had to refuse about 20 cookies just for a short surfing foray. I would hate to think how much information is collected by MySpace by various means, especially if people are forced to give an e-mail address with their real name when they sign up. April 20, 2006 Philips Electronics has applied for a patent that could let broadcasters freeze a channel during a commercial, so viewers wouldn't be able to change channels. What a waste of engineering talent. We still have the refrigerator raid, the bathroom break, and the most important tools - the DVR PAUSE and MUTE buttons. Broadcasters need to stop paying such high costs of production and running five commercials back-to-back. People might watch a commercial now and then if there weren't so many, often the same one several times within the same program time-slot. I will watch a commercial once. Once in its entire lifespan, unless it is really clever. Very few commercials a year are really clever or worthy of watching. The paint is worn off my PAUSE button on my DVR remote and on the MUTE button. Regarding ads: I am happy with my truck, so several hundred vehicle commercials go unwatched each week. I never ask my doctor if any medicine I saw on TV is right for me. If I drink beer, which is seldom, I already know which one I am going to buy and no commercial is going to change that. Because there is no full-time female resident in my home, all ads that tout feminine products are muted. Other than a Dairy Queen, there are no fast-food outlets or national chain eating establishments in the Outback. By the time I do get to someplace for a meal, I have long forgotten what food or place was in the TV ads. There are no kids in the house, so all ads for food or toys aimed at kids get no viewing here. I have a Cingular cell phone and the service is poor here in the Outback, so the "raising the bar" commercials only irritate me - not sell me anything. They only remind me to look for another provider when my contract expires. Whenever I can, I buy the Kroger house brand instead of a name brand - of salsa, cheese, olive oil, cereal, and on and on. I have never bought a Bayer aspirin, not when the completely-comparable generic is up to 10 times cheaper. I have a great HDTV set and don't need another one. I have three computers and don't need another one. I did start buying LaCreme Yogurt when they ran the ad with the maid sitting in the man's lap feeding him LaCreme. And, I did buy a roll of Bounty paper towels when I got tired of the cheap towels I had been buying that had virtually no absorption. So, for $750 million worth of ads, they have managed to sell me about $150 worth of product in the last two years. Not a good return on investment. April 19, 2006: In the Outback for Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006, I wrote the following: "If I were 'Porky Pig,' the White House Press Secretary, I think I would resign and go into an honest field of work, like lobbying. You can do only so much spinning and you take a chance that your head will spin off and buckets of blood will spill on the floor." Scott McClellan finally did the right thing. As to the Porky Pig comment, it is the pot calling the kettle black, since I need to lose a bunch of weight. But, as I watched this poor man struggle day after day, the cartoon character image jumped out at me. April 18, 2006: The New York Times won a Pulitzer prize for its reporting of the NSA interception program. What a great country. We give out prizes to those who arguably have damaged our national security in time of great crisis by printing leaked secret information. A defense witness in the sentencing phase of the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui said the defendant is a paranoid schizophrenic. Comedian Dennis Miller, speaking in general terms about too many people trying to use the insanity defense, said, "Fine, we'll fry you in a clown suit." My suggestion is that Moussaoui be given life in prison and allowed to mingle freely with the other prisoners, especially in the exercise yard. That would placate the anti-death-penalty folks. The prisoners would make their own judgement about Moussaoui's fate. My best guess is that the prisoners would save the government a lot of long-term care costs. A win-win for justice. April 16, 2006: The CIA's "The World Factbook 2006" is now available as a free download from your friends at the CIA (www.cia.gov). I have used this valuable resource for years - and updated it today. It is a 30MB download and the .zip file expands to about 80MB. You will not believe all the information that is in this valuable resource. Oh, I think it is probably free of "spyware." It's a joke that I couldn't resist. April 15, 2006: Although I need a new computer like I need the Bird Flu, I am starting to salivate over building a computer with a dual-core processor, new and faster memory chips, faster SATA hard drives, a new graphics interface, Windows VISTA operating system, and an LCD monitor with a very fast response time. But, this all just may be a dream for most of us. The editor of PC Magazine, Jim Louderback, points out in the April issue that Microsoft is getting harder to deal with on operating software sold directly to end users. Jim says that he has been unable, for example, to obtain a boxed copy of Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition. This is like Ford saying you have to buy whatever car they want to sell you with no choice of options, or that you cannot buy a Ford engine to put in your homebuilt hot-rod. As the Justice Department tried to point out in its long-running lawsuit - Microsoft is too big. And a bully! They simply don't care what their customers think. They are like Crack dealers. There are plenty of people around who are hooked on Windows. The heavy-handed business practices by Microsoft is why the only Microsoft product I use is Win XP. I use Eudora and Palm Desktop in place of Outlook, Wordperfect Suite in place of Word and Xcel, Firefox and Opera instead of IE6 (except for Windows updates - because you can't use anything else), Zone Alarm instead of the XP built-in firewall, Spysweeper instead of MS beta security program, the much superior PowerDesk Pro (www.v-com.com) instead of Explorer, Quicken instead of MS Money, and on and on. This is one of the reasons I build my own computers. I don't have to buy a computer loaded down with crap from Microsoft, Symantec, and McAfee, that I will never use. Once again, the reason MS Word is the most-used word processor is because MS forced computer makers to put it on their new computers - or threaten them with withholding Windows or raising the OEM price. WordPerfect was forbidden on most new machines, until after the Justice Dept. case. So, once you had a free copy MS Word on your computer, you were unlikely to buy WordPerfect, which is a superior program in the view of many. Check law offices, for example. Why does David Letterman vigorously tap on his desk mike with a pencil? He is trying to see if any of his viewers realize that the desk mike is a prop, that it is not live. The mike is a hangover from when hosts used those desk mikes and boom mikes caught the sounds from guests. Now, everyone wears wireless (RF) mikes. One sportscaster on a major network said that he would someday like to get a mike to use on air like the one David Letterman uses on his desk. He liked the sound. You're kidding me. How would you know what it sounds like? It is a dead mike. If you can hear the loud staccato sound of Conan O'Brien slapping his hands together during his monologue, imagine how loud it would be if Letterman's desk mike was live when he pounds it with a pencil. You would think somebody in management would stop Conan O'Brien from slapping his hands together. It is very distracting and annoying - for the 2-3 minutes I can stand to watch him. April 14, 2006: There has been considerable sadness among many Democrats and among liberals in the media that Bill Clinton cannot run again for the Presidency. The XXII Amendment states that: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice ..." But, Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, provides that if a president dies, resigns or is removed from office, his powers "shall devolve on the vice president." Well, let's get it on. Hillary runs for Prez and Bill is her V.P. running mate. To those that say she is unelectable, she could come right out and say, "If you elect me, I will immediately resign and under Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, Bill Clinton will become President." It might work! And it sure would keep the Supreme Court tied up in knots for a long time. By the way, this scenario is probably the only way a Clinton will make it to the White House in 2008. Forget all those rosy polls and the constant drumbeat from the liberal media. Hillary has too much baggage and will be too shrill and prone to lying and gross exaggeration in attacking the G.O.P. - even for the Democrats. If you have any doubt that the U.S. Government is reluctant to give up any tax it has imposed, you need only look at the excise tax on telephone long-distance calls. Enacted in 1898 to help pay for the Spanish-American War, we still pay that tax in 2006! In 2000 the tax was repealed by the Congress, but President Clinton vetoed the bill. Now, the Congress is once again making noises about killing the tax and making some rebates to phone customers. We can hardly afford to do that. The Spanish-American War may be paid for, but not the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is going to take more than a telephone tax to dig us out of that financial pit. April 13, 2006: I am not in favor of the death penalty, mainly because it has been proven, mostly by DNA evidence, that too many people on death row were wrongly convicted. But, the latest assault on lethal injection is ridiculous. There are claims that if the inmate is not sufficiently "put to sleep," the subsequent drugs can cause great pain and suffering. I have had only one "near-death" experience. When I was scheduled for heart surgery, I was scared half silly about being wheeled into the operating room and seeing those bright lights and the doctor poised with his rotary saw to carve my sternum open. Well, in the prep area, they inserted an IV, and I was in "nappy land" in short order. I never remember being wheeled into OR. It seems to me that there is little excuse not to give the inmate enough of a tranquilizing drug so that he is "out of it," and will feel no further pain. I don't know what gas they use in the gas chamber, but if you gave an inmate a heavy dose of drugs to basically "put him under," and then introduced Carbon Monoxide into the chamber, death would be painless. People die in their sleep all the time from Carbon Monoxide poisoning and never knew what happened. If it was painful, they would have awakened. April 11, 2006 8:04 p.m. CDT Normally, I don't watch "American Idol" until the very end. Tonight, I watched the final eight and heard Katharine McPhee sing for the first time. It this were a court of law, instead of a fickle court of public opinion, populated with hyperactive phone dialers, I suggest that the other contestants plead "Nolo Contendre." That is commonly known as "no contest," but is actually "I will not defend it." If Ms. McPhee does not win, it will not matter. Her career will so eclipse the other contestants that she will be in the realm of superstars in a relatively short time. I buy only a couple of CDs a year. I will be in line for her first. April 11, 2006: I have often accused The Wall Street Journal of snobbery. See, for example, my letter to the WSJ about "Rich People's Watches" (on my main Web page). In today's WSJ edition is a thoughtful article about immigration by Michael Barone. At the end of the article is the following: "Mr. Barone, senior writer at U.S. News & World Report, is the author, inter alia, of 'The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again' (Regnery, 2001)." Who among the citizenry, other than lawyers, knows what "inter alia" means? It is Latin for "among other things." Now you know, without having to buy Black's Law Dictionary. So, impress your friends. Say, "I bought a new Diana Krall DVD, a new X-Box game - inter alia." Inter who? Must be a rapper. Most of the Senate immigration bill, which is stalled, makes pretty good sense - for the Senate. One thing that appeals to me is that the long path to citizenship would require immigrants to learn English. I wrote in both a San Antonio and Dallas newspaper about the lack of economic opportunity for those who do not speak English. In one store where I trade, mom and pop are from SE Asia. They speak only a few words of English. If you ask them a question - other than "how much?" - they say, "I get daughter" (who is a college student). In another store, the owner's wife is from Spain, speaks perfect English and runs the day-to-day operations. One of her employees (a stock clerk) is a Mexican, who speaks only a few words of English. I greet Jose in Spanish, but it is all downhill from there, trying to get him to understand what it is that I need. What future does he have? Another Mexican friend speaks very good English and is an assistant service manager at a automobile dealership. I always seek him out, rather than the boss. He tries very hard to do the best he can for me and appreciates that I speak a few words of Spanish with him. The examples are endless. Forget the "Press Dos for Espanol." Minorities may now be in the majority in California and Texas, but the language of commerce - and of America - is English. Get with the program if you want to earn the big bucks. The same is true for blacks who insist on using their own style of English. Not a lot of call for that on Wall Street, or as a telephone information operator, or telephone computer-support technician. Even the tech-support guys and gals in India speak conventional English! They also assume Anglo first names to fit in. Clever. You cudda had dat job if you spoke gud English. Of course, there is a flip side to the language thing. Americans are notorious throughout the world for not knowing a second or third language. This makes it harder for us to work in some foreign countries, for example. Until I got on all the do-not-call lists, I often answered "Out of Area" calls in Spanish, German, Italian, or French. The caller would quickly hang up. Except one, who said they would get a Spanish speaker to call me back. Good luck, I would then answer the next call in German. By no means am I fluent in those languages, but I managed to get around well when I lived in Europe. Out of habit, I always answer my cell phone with "Ohla." (OH-la) It is easy to say and I guess an homage to my affinity with the Hispanic culture. April 10, 2006: Those who marched against tougher immigration policies and people who agree with them ought to be thankful that we are the most generous country in the world when it comes to immigration - partly by design and partly by accident. But we have reached a critical mass and must do something. Take a look at how hard it is to get a resident permit in Switzerland, or read the immigration policies of Japan or Australia, for example. Just today, a survey came out that said that Zurich and Geneva, Switzerland were among the top places to live in the world. At www.switzerland.isyours.com, one is struck by the following: "Violent crime is almost unknown.... Firearm ownership is widespread in Switzerland, however, and precision shooting is a highly regarded pastime. Young people can practice shooting military weapons by the age of 16, and keep their rifles at home.... It is worth noting that the high number of firearms per capita does not lead to a high rate of violent crime – on the contrary." Quick, send another delegation to Switzerland to talk to them about their immigration policies and liberal gun policies. Obviously, they know something that we do not. April 09, 2006:
John Kerry is a glib speaker and looks presidential. Sometimes he is given to hyperbole and strained analogies that reduce his credibility. Speaking before the Nashua New Hampshire Country Club (no, not in a factory), Mr. Kerry seemed out to prove that he was a "bigger Christian" than the born-again fellow in the White House. Mr. Kerry said: "I went back to the five books that tell you the most about Jesus Christ, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. And I will tell you nowhere in there - nowhere - not on one page, not in one phrase uttered and recorded by the Lord, Jesus Christ, can you find anything to suggest that there is a virtue in cutting children from Medicaid and taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich." And, by God, he was right. As hard as I looked, I could not find a single mention of Medicaid in the Bible. In a blog on the New Republic Online for April 9, 2006, Martin Peretz, when writing about a speech by John Kerry, wrote in part that Kerry said:
My comments were posted much earlier than in the New Republic Online, and I think had a better summary and insight into the remarks by Sen. Kerry. And I correctly stated that Sen. Kerry said "Medicaid," not "Medicare" as reported in the New Republic. I actually watched the speech and took notes. Duh! I am going to start dating every topical paragraph and article in the Outback. I find too many later "coincidences" in other publications. Not that the one in New Republic was inspired by me, unless the writer was clever enough to misreport the use of the word "Medicare" when Kerry said "Medicaid." You may think it is quibbling to complain about the press reporting on the use of "Medicare" versus "Medicaid." It is a symptom of a much larger problem of media credence, intellectual capacity, and attention to facts. "Cutting children from Medicare?" A moments reflection, even if you did not hear the Kerry speech, would make you realize that you have to be age 65 to qualify for Medicare. A simple exercise in logic and deduction, even if you are basing your work on someone else's reporting. I think it is fair to say that Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D. Ga.) is a racist who looks for every chance she can to play the victim, and there has been more than one such incident. What struck me was that she failed to wear her "Congressional Pin" and was challenged by a Capitol policeman when she did not go through the metal detector. People in Congress are allowed access to the Capitol based on a lapel pin? You must be kidding. Can you imagine someone at the CIA waltzing into HQ based on an easily-counterfeited pin? If people in Congress are not subjected to passage through check points with photo-badges or biometric scanners, then they deserve whatever fate befalls them. And considering the heated crescendo of partisan rhetoric taking place in the House and Senate, if I were in Congress I would not feel comfortable unless everyone went through a metal detector.
After a cumulative review of cable news channels, I have reached an inescapable truth. All talk shows on CNN, FOXNews, CNBC, MSNBC, and elsewhere, should be taken off the air. My goodness, what a bunch of redundant shouting, name calling and alarmist pleas. This week, it was an endless parade of "experts" discussing child porn, praising or castigating illegal immigrants, the worn-out and trite debate about the war in Iraq, who leaked what, and that poor girl (whatever her name is) who has been missing for months in Aruba. Normally, I don't watch any channel with a "crawl," but I used my digital HDTV controls to cut off the crawl and watched a variety of cable talk shows to see if there was anything of merit. Conclusion. No! Then, it dawned on me. I had these channels listed in one of my most-visited "favorites" lists. Well, the simple solution was to take them out of the favorites I normally watch. Now, with about 175 other channels, there is no reason for me to watch any of the cable-news talk shows - unless there is a current national disaster. So, that gives me perhaps 11 months of a respite from all the drivel that clutters up the airwaves. Carlos Mencia, whose show can be seen on Comedy Central, is an Hispanic version of Chris Rock, i.e., he pulls no punches, ethnic or otherwise. Carlos talks a lot about how you see "Beaners" (Mexicans) hanging out in the parking lots of Home Depot hoping to snag a job helping some hapless homeowner install their new patio - or whatever. He says, "You don't see no black guys hanging out at Home Depot parking lots." Perhaps your mind flashes to the impoverished blacks of New Orleans who have gotten so much attention since Katrina hit. Carlos Mencia says that "beaners" are flocking to the Gulf Coast to get jobs in construction. I make no judgement, but one has to wonder why so many of the black folks around New Orleans are so poor. Is it because there is no work or because they don't want to work? For years we saw the disincentive to work brought on by our massive welfare system. Why work if you could get subsidized housing, food stamps, welfare checks, free medical care at the ER, and so on? Carlos is a sociologist of sorts, and some of his observations cut to the heart of race relations - and to the arguments about immigration. Check him out. Carlos Mencia tells one tongue-in-cheek story that cracked me up. He says that in Mexico he saw this Home Depot store and the usual flock of "Beaners" hanging out in front in hopes of snagging a part-time job. But, he said, there was nothing inside the Home Depot. The whole thing was simply a "training school for beaners who are hoping to make it to the U.S." Many, if not most, Americans move to where the jobs are. To hunker down in an area with limited job opportunies and refuse to look elsewhere is not much of an excuse. We all may love our communities, but when it comes to starving or putting food on the table, the sensible alternative is to go where the work is. If New Orleans, for example, cannot support the number of people who live there, that's life. Move to where the jobs are. Unemployment nationally is very low. The plaintive "But, New Orleans has always been my home" is wearing a little thin.
In the Outback for Oct.4, 2004 (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbac95.html) in "The Pitfalls of Online Dating," I chronicled some of the disastrous experiences I had with a couple of the major online dating services. Nearly 2 million people met their spouses online. Now, we are starting to see the divorces of many of those couples, perhaps no more than the national average, but surely a sign of large-scale disenchantment with what many of these folks thought they were signing up for. A famous divorce lawyer says of his splitsville clients: "It's usually a relationship based on fantasy or desperation ..." Check my article where I said that the prince charming that many females post as their ideal mate simply does not exist. He is a fantasy. Online daters often focus on common grounds with similar tastes in music, food and entertainment. When they start dealing with stepkids and how to spend their joint incomes, they realize that online profiles, e-mails, some phone calls, and even a few personal dates cannot predict what troubled areas might be looming. In the Outback for June 16, 2001 (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbac34.html), I suggested that the Kyoto Protocol was a monumental scam. Not much has changed in nearly five years. Recent reporting notes that Kyoto exempts half of the world's population and 9 of the top 20 emitters of carbon dioxide. China and India, with massive populations and massive pollution, are among those exempt. Almost none of the nations that signed the Kyoto protocol are meeting the requirements. Of the original 15 signatories in Europe, 13 will probably miss the 2010 emissions-reduction targets. The U.S. emissions have increased less than many of the Kyoto nations! Other approaches to curbing greenhouse gases are needed. In two words, Kyoto sucks. In the previous Outback, I said: "I also wonder what the real FBI director thinks of the FBI agents on CBS's 'Criminal Minds' and CBS's 'Numb3rs' who show up to investigate cases in slacks and polo shirts. I'm old school, where Federal agents did not go around dressed like people on vacation - unless working undercover." I was really upset with a portrayal of an FBI agent in a recent episode of CBS's "Criminal Minds." Matthew Gray Gubler plays agent Dr. Spencer Reid, the egghead of the FBI profiler team. In the episode, the former male model (in real life) and effeminite Dr. Reid was guarding a Hollywood starlet at her home. He walked around with a large semiautomatic pistol dangling from his belt in an akward and unusual position. He simply looked silly. Then, he allowed the starlet to pull him into the pool, gun and all. Next, he let a female with a gun get the drop on him. Finally, he wrested the gun away from the female assailant. Good thing it was not a large man. In total, I cannot remember any other male law-enforcement character on TV looking so miscast and essentially degrading the image of the FBI. With many hours of C-SPAN coverage of the hearings about the NSA intercept program under my belt, it is clear that most of the hearings, and what has been written about the NSA program, is mostly politics. First, only about 11 members of Congress have been fully briefed on the NSA "warrantless" intercept of communications with foreign agents. Of those who have been briefed, none are suggesting that the program be stopped, only that it be given more legitimacy. We saw a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing (Mar. 28) about the NSA program that featured among the panelists four former FISA Court judges (they have 7-year, non-renewable terms, as I recall). The lead witness was Magistrate Judge Allan Kornblum, who was involved for many years at the Justice Department in overseeing wiretap applications. These learned men droned on and on about presidential powers, the general workings of the FISA Court and how essential it had been in the investigation of terrorist activities. But not one of these panelists had been briefed on the current NSA program - since it was not in existence when they served on the court. The four former FISA judges, who are still sitting Federal judges, generally agreed that intercepts that involved people in the U.S. on one end of the conversation, should be subject to some sort of judicial review. That would probably mean that the rules for the FISA court and appeals to the rulings of that court would need to be amended. They were also in general agreement that a statute (such as the one that created the FISA court) could not take away the power of the President to do what was reasonable and proper to exercise his "executive power" contained in Article II of the Constitution. So if no statute could trump his Constitutional executive powers, what then of the argument that no person is above the law? The panel of judges wanted to skirt such issues, since they are sitting judges, but fairly well conceded that the President had the right to conduct foreign affairs (and foreign communications intercepts). If he chose to authorize warrantless intercepts that might monitor foreign traffic with one end of a conversation coming from the U.S., he would do so at his peril. Sen. Leahy pointed out before the panel of judges testified that "We are not going to learn anything new." Right on. It was a pathetic display of distinguished jurists whose basic theme was, "We can't help you much, since none of us knows what the President's plan encompasses." One senator asked if the panel were in a "closed session" (secret) would they be able to shed more light on the legality of the NSA program and possible remedies. The answer: "We have told you pretty much everything we know on the subject, since we have not been briefed on the program." About the only useful thing I learned from the hearing was when the judges spoke about the concerns that there were no warrants in the NSA intercepts - based on "probable cause" - as laid out in the Fourth Amendment. The judges pointed out that there was a lower bar or threshold for acquiring a FISA warrant than for a criminal warrant. They said instead of being a threshold of "probable cause," the test was more of a "reasonable suspicion" that one of the parties to the intercept was somehow associated with international terrorism. This is huge! It certainly got the attention of Sen. Feinstein, who seemed surprised at the lower threshold - but in my judgement - she agreed with it. Please be reminded that when FBI agents in Minneapolis attempted to get a FISA warrant aimed at Zacarias Moussaoui, they were shot down by lawyers at FBI HQ who thought the information about Zacarias Moussaoui did not reach the threshold to obtain a FISA warrant. Guess again, legal boys. That decision cost us dearly. Further obfuscation was provided by Sen. Arlen Specter, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, who had drafted a bill to address some of the issues of the NSA program by amending the FISA statute. Mr. Specter proposes to give approval authority over the administration's electronic surveillance program to the FISA court. But ... Sen. Specter has not been briefed on the NSA program! How can you draft a bill when you don't know that entire parameters of the situation? Beats me. It seems a little strange that the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has not been briefed on the NSA program. I listened in amazement as Sen. Specter sought confirmation from the panel of judges that his bill was on the right track, even though none of panel of judges or Sen. Specter knew anything about how the plan worked! Unbelievable! Even more ludicrous was the fact that sitting on the Judiciary Committee was Sen. Orrin Hatch who had been to NSA and gotten a full briefing on the intercept program. Sen Hatch could not talk about specifics, but indicated that the program was a good one and needed. Well, that settles all the confusion. As if things were not confused enough, Sen. Feingold wants to "censure" President Bush for the NSA program. Feingold is even talking about impeachment. I don't know exactly what his problem is, but Democratic senators have been largely mute on the censure and impeachment matters. There is no provision in the Constitution for the Senate to "censure" a president, but it makes good "blood-in-the-water" headlines. Incredibly, Sen. Specter convened a hearing to take testimony on the potential "censure." Sen. Specter said that the proposal was "without merit." But, it was obvious that he way bending over backwards to show impartiality and fairness. Good for him, but sad that all the time was wasted with this ludicrous hearing. Besides Sen. Feingold, only two Democratic senators attended the hearing, and one ducked out early without comment. The big witness: John Dean, convicted felon from the Nixon White House. Dean tried to compare Nixon covering up Watergate (to save his butt) to Bush intercepting domestic phone calls to terrorists overseas. Dean said that what President Bush had done was worse than anything Nixon had done. That's a brilliant insight. What an insult that he was even on the panel. The hearing itself was insult enough. Don't you folks have some real work to do? Before you form opinions about the NSA warrantless program, it might be well to read the FISA Act, which I doubt that few embroiled in the public debate have ever read. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is contained in 50 U.S.C. Chap. 36 Subchapter 1 (50 U.S. Code): http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode50/usc_sup_01_50_10_36_20_I.html April 21, 2006 I am sure that what I am about to describe is not unique to PC Magazine, so read this carefully if you pay for magazine subscriptions with a credit card. On June 24, 2005, I made an online subscription to PC Magazine. My note in Quicken says "25 issues - $25.00." That same offer is currently on their Web page. I recently got a post card that had on it the words "AUTOMATIC RENEWAL NOTICE." The word "automatic" caused me to read the card very carefully. First, the renewal is 22 issues, instead of 25, and the yearly rate is $34.97. The online subscription form has the following language on it:
The renewal card contains the following language: In the first place, who reads the tiny print online, which is the last sentence on a 2-page form?Saturday, April 1, 2006 - and following
Thoughts While Staring at the Ceiling Fan
Mr. Kerry might want to rethink his comment about those Bible chapters being "uttered and recorded by the Lord, Jesus Christ." Matthew, Mark, Luke, et al., might quibble about who recorded the words. Also, Sen. Kerry might soft pedal talking about giving money to the rich, considering his wife's wealth - and when he is giving a talk at a country club.
"Not in one phrase uttered and reported by the Lord Jesus Christ, can you find anything that suggests that there is a virtue in cutting children from Medicare." (Peretz then opined) "I'd actually go Kerry one further: I doubt that Jesus ever mentioned Medicare at all. Still, it's probably significant that some presidential aspirants--Kerry, for one--want to demonstrate that there are among them some real live Democrats for God."
NSA Wiretap Controversy Based on Few Facts
The Open-Ended Subscription to PC Magazine
Service Guarantee: Your subscription will continue without interruption for as long as you wish, unless you instruct us otherwise. We will notify and bill you at the discounted renewal rate then in effect prior to each new subscription term. (emphasis mine)
As described when you ordered, we'll automatically extend your subscription for another term and bill your credit card. (emphasis mine)
The language of the original online offer and the language of the renewal card are not consistent. I consider this to be quasi-fraud - and at the least a very dishonest practice. The original language of "We will notify and bill you at the discounted renewal rate then in effect prior to each new subscription term" is completely different from the renewal card which says: "... automatically extend your subscription for another term and bill your credit card. "
I am today writing a letter to cancel my subscription to PC Magazine, with a copy to the chief legal counsel at Ziff-Davis Publications - and a copy to the Federal Trade Commission. Obviously, I don't like being screwed over with "clever contractual language."
To the Legal Department at Ziff-Davis, the publishers, I suggest that you put something like the following just below the last form box on the online subscription sign up - and in large type:
Option To Automatically Renew With a Charge to Your Credit Card
If you would like to automatically renew your subscription - for the same length as your current subscription - by an automatic charge to your credit card, please put a check in the box at the left. This charge to your credit card will be made 30 days before your current subscription is to expire. A similar charge will be made at the end of each subsequent subscription period unless you notify us in writing that you no longer want to use Automatic Renewal.
My advice is to pay for all subscriptions by check. In the old days, i.e., B4 the Web, it worked fine. You sent in a check for a subscription. If you did not want to renew the magazine, you threw the renewal notice in the trash.
Incidentally, I was leaning toward not renewing PC Magazine. I have been a subscriber off and on for about 20 years. Now, PC Magazine is writing articles every month about HDTV sets and Cars. Hello. Read the cover. PC! Sure, HDTV and cars have computer chips in them, but there are plenty of sources of information about HDTV and Cars. The editor tried to placate me about the HDTV by saying that there is a convergence of PCs and HDTVs. Yes, so why are you writing straight reviews of HDTV sets, without any hint that they might tie in with a PC? Apparently, there is so much computer information on the Web that a PC magazine feels it must fill its pages with reviews of HDTV sets and cars. The "Automatic Renewal" post card just helped me make up my mind.
Weather Radio Update 2006
On my main Web page, under Ham Radio, I long ago posted two articles about Weather Alert Radios. One article went into great depth about the 1999 Radio Shack model 12-250. This radio incorporated the new SAME technology, which stands for Specific Area Message Encoding. SAME allows you to set your weather radio (WX radio) to pick up alerts only from specific areas and also allows you to select which individual type alerts you want to hear. Some alerts cannot be blocked out, like a Tornado Warning. What is the point of having a WX radio if you can block out the critical warnings?
Update: The remainder of this article has been moved to my main Web page, under Ham Radio. The URL is:
www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/wxrad06.htm
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