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27 December 2004

 

Maybe it's time to dump the Founding Fathers
Why all this blind devotion to the U.S. Constitution? Isn't it about time we give that ancient document an update. After all, the founding document of this land still declares that slaves are only worth three fifths as much as free persons. Thomas Jefferson said that he thought the Constitution should be revised every generation or so.

What we have now is simply not working for the vast majority of people living in this country today. Let's have a new constitutional convention and see if We the People can get it right this time. One reason we're in the mess we're in today is that our revered Founding Fathers never really trusted We the People. For example, here's what old John Jay once said, "The people who own the country ought to govern it." The Republicans couldn't have said it any better.

posted by Lorenzo 2:34 PM

20 December 2004

 

Something bothers me about Google's fix of its desktop search flaw
The link above will take you to a story about the flaw in Google's new desktop search tool. Fortunately, I never downloaded it because I just had a gut feeling that it could provide a back door if someone wanted to access my hard drive. I didn't suspect a security flaw. I just didn't trust having an unknown piece of software looking through my stuff. So my instinct was right but for the wrong reason.

But here is what still bothers me. The above story said, "According to a Google spokesperson, the vulnerability was fixed and the company started 'pushing' the update to users' computers last week. Like Windows Update, Google Desktop Search users can automatically have updates to their programs downloaded and installed onto their computers." ... Now think about this for a minute. The flaw is found, and a fix is automatically installed on your machine. So you go merrily along, letting Google build an intelligent index of all the files on your hard drive. Then along comes the HSF (Homeland Security Force), with no subpeona required, and they tell Google to automatically uninstall their fix on your machine. Then, with a loud sucking sound, NSA downloads an index of all the computers that are using the Google (or Microsoft?) desktop search engine. Wouldn't they have fun then cross-linking everything on everyone's hard drives. If you are only on two or three email lists, you can bet that you'll in some way get cross-indexed to someone else on the list who is being watched as a terrorist. The next thing you know, you are on the watch list too, and your air travel days are over. Before long, a lot of other people, like your friends and family who are cross-linked to you, get placed on the watch list as well. . . . Don't laugh, it's already happening, but only on a very small scale . . . so far.

My advice is to keep track of your files the old way ... organize them yourself!

posted by Lorenzo 4:37 PM

14 December 2004

 

Something to think about
Man should not be in the service of society, society should be in service of man. When man is in the serivce of society, you have a monster state, and that's what is threatening the world at this minute.
-- Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

posted by Lorenzo 3:52 PM

07 December 2004

 

Question of the day
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - President Bush, appearing before cheering US forces Tuesday, declared that terrorists won’t be able to control Iraq’s destiny because "free people will never choose their own enslavement."

If that statement is true, then why he is sitting in the White House?

posted by Lorenzo 2:47 PM