Archive for April, 2007
On abridging rights
Ever since Cho Seung-Hui murdered 32 innocent people before he ended his own existence on this globe, certain elements of society have been hot on the trail to terminate the right of the people to possess effective means of self defense. They blame the instrument for the crime that was committed with it.
Now, if we were to take the same tack with other rights, it’d be interesting to see where we’d end up. It is a known fact that “copy cats” will endeavor to commit the same type of crime as that which some other lowlife committed – and got his name and face plastered all over the world, thereby garnering renown for an other wise worthless life. The media has time after time put other people in jeopardy because of their “First Amendment Rights”. Well, if we’d abbreviate those rights we’d end up saving a lot of lives. Let’s just make it a crime to report vicious crimes via any form of mass media. That will eliminate the copycats and deny the perpetrators the satisfaction of knowing that they are now at least infamous.
And spam! It’s the scourge of the modern world. Each day millions or even billions of e-mails are sent out advertising anything from “cheap internet drug stores” to ways to ensure that certain parts of your anatomy will overcome your genetic limitations. These e-mails are a real scourge, taking away countless hours of time from otherwise productive people. So, let’s just ditch the whole e-mail thing. Let’s take it away since it is used so hideously.
There’s no doubt that Jim Jones, David Koresh and other’s have taken advantage of people’s gullibility and have caused grave harm in the name of religion. It is also well documented that communism’s atheistic religion has cost the lives of millions upon millions of innocent people during the 20th century – and even today in the 21st century the adherents of this, the world’s most violent religion, continue to exact a terrible toll upon mankind. So let’s do away with religion too.
It’s quite inconvenient for the “duly appointed authorities” to have to go through the hassle of obtaining warrants and such in order to search for weapons, drugs and other scourges of modern civilization. So let’s just turn over to them the unfettered right to search anyone, anytime, anywhere. After all, if you’ve nothing to hide you’ve nothing to fear.
Most folks agree that it’d be good to find ways to cut down on military spending. The Defense budget is one of the (or is it THE) largest items on the US’s yearly budget. So let’s whittle it down in an obvious and easy way. Let’s simply obligate folks around military bases to take our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen into their homes and provide them room and board. By doing so we’ll also have a way to keep an eye on all those wascally civilians and ensure they don’t get away with breaking the laws. Make ‘em behave properly and provide for our troops the lodging they need. Kind of kill two birds with one stone as well as cutting down the cost of maintaining a standing army.
And since we know that folks will do whatever in order to get away with all sorts of crime, let’s allow our officers to gather information in any way they want. After ALL, EVERYONE’S guilty of SOMETHING. So a little torture to get out the truth about crimes, a little sneaking around and paying folks for information, a little confiscation of private property to examine it for evidence of crime – none of that should bother us. After all, the ends justify the means.
And for those of you who’ve made it thus far, the post above is satire – in case you were wondering. 
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My Citizenship
Living in South America has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. I thank God that my parents raised me and my siblings on the mission field in Brasil. The opportunity to live in different places and to learn from folks with different backgrounds has been important to my way of thinking and living. My folks had one way of thinking and doing things, those around me had a different way from my folks and inevitably I ended up with my own way of doing things – kind of a blend of the other two. By living in different parts of the world I’ve found that no one has a corner on “the right way” of doing things. Each person will have some good insight into things on one or two matters – and be completely clueless about something else.
Different cultures face the same issues in different ways. And they often look at other countries and their way of doing things as “weird” or at least “strange”. I’ve never understood why folks refuse to try something new, whether it’s a new food or a new way of doing things. Even just listening to folks and trying to understand “where they’re coming from” can open new insights to your own world.
Often folks ask me “Which country do you like best?” – hoping I’ll choose one or another. My pretty much stock answer is simple: “It depends for what.” Sometimes I like to eat an apple. Sometimes I’d rather have a banana or some grapes. And the same with the countries where I’ve lived and spent significant amounts of my life in. Each one has its own “flavor” and each one has certain elements to recommend it.
What I DO know is that I’m an “American” by birth, a Brazilian by raising and a Colombian by residence. But my TRUE citizenship is in Heaven – and that’s the only one that truly counts in the long run.
Thoughts upon the renewal of my pistol license
Here we are four days after the horrific slaughter at Virginia Tech. It so happens that I’m in the process of renewing my pistol permit. Needless to say, ideas about personal protection and means to do so have been running through my head this week. I live in a country where the possession and use of firearms is highly controlled by the government, to say the least. All firearms belong to the government, by means of the Constitution written in the mid 1990′s. The government may allow their possession by individuals or companies at their sole discretion and only after all pertinent paperwork is filled out and filed with them.
The paperwork requested for renewal is fairly extensive.
- You must provide an affidavit that you are physically and mentally able to handle firearms.
- You must provide a letter to the local army commander justifying your possession of a firearm for personal defense.
- You must provide a color copy of your “judicial past” demonstrating that you have a clean bill of health in the judicial system – blown up to 150% of original size
- You must provide a certificate from your local municipality proving that you reside at the specified address.
- You must provide a filled out official form for firearms acquisition or renewal which can only be purchased at the Army store.
- You must provide a letter requesting the purchase or renewal of a firearm addressed to the local branch of the governmental agency in charge of arms, ammunition and explosives.
- You must provide a color copy of your national ID card – blown up to 150% of original size
- You must provide a color copy of your gun permit – blown up to 150% of original size.
Once you get your paper work in order then you must file it with the local army folks and upon acceptance of the paperwork you will be required to deposit a considerable sum into their bank account. The resulting permit is good for three years for a carry piece and ten years for a weapon to be kept at home or in your place of business.
I know that to many the fact that Cho Seung-Hui was a resident alien stirred anger that he could have legally purchased a weapon. They forget that in order for one to become a legal resident alien in almost any country of the world requires extensive background checks and reams of paper work. In other words, resident aliens tend to be much less likely to commit a crime than your run of the mill citizen. Will some “snap” or turn out to not have been worthy of the the trust placed in them? Yes. That’s human nature independent of nationality or residence. I, for one, am thankful for the courtesy extended to me by my host country in allowing me the ability to purchase and carry the means of self defense. The laws and customs are strange to me and I admit that they often grate upon my freedom loving nerves, but I AM grateful for SOME means of obtaining reasonably effective means of self defense.
Now, as for my native land, I hope that we will have learned from the events of Monday, April 16, 2007. I hope and pray that what Cho Seung-Hui did will be a wakeup call to my fellow citizens, rallying us to cry for freedom, rallying us to denounce the tyranny of so called “gun free zones”, rallying us to demand that our elected representatives return to us the God given right to self defense without worry of being prosecuted for exercising that right or carrying the means of executing that right.
Yes, my heart is heavy with sorrow for those who lost loved ones and friends at the hand of Cho Seung-Hui. But it also burns in anger at those who denied the students and faculty of Virginia Tech both the means of self defense and effective protection against those who would do them harm. By denying the students and faculty the means of self defense, the university took upon itself the responsibility of providing EFFECTIVE protection against Cho Seung-Hui or any other who would seek to prey upon the denizens of the Virginia Tech campus. In stead of providing EFFECTIVE protection they merely relied upon their policy of “no guns allowed”. In other words, they acted as fools! Fools because if some one is determined to break the time honored prohibition upon the taking of innocent human life there is NOTHING that will stop them from breaking any rules prohibiting the carrying of weapons.
May my co-citizens rally to the cry for freedom from tyranny and a return to the values upon which our nation was founded.
When guns are outlawed
Guns are not completely outlawed here. But they are VERY expensive to obtain legally. They are also available on the black market, but most folks can’t afford them even then. So what to do when you can’t get a gun? What if you want to continue your life of robbing and terrorizing? What if you merely want a means to defend yourself against criminals? What if you want more of a chance against and aggressor than fingernails, teeth and a bad attitude will provide? Then there’s still older technology around. The common knife in various forms. Below are some pictures I took recently of a display the police had put up. The sign at the bottom proclaims “5220 injured people have been prevented this year” . Looking at some of the closeups below make me believe that this is an exaggeration. They have not been prevented, merely postponed. So. What happens when guns are outlawed? Outlaws and others find other means of continuing “business as usual” . Violence, after all, comes not from the availability of weapons but rather from the desire of the aggressor to commit violence.
It was only a matter of time
April 16, 2007 – a day that will long haunt our nation.
On Monday, April 16, 2007, 23 year-old Cho Seung-Hui (Cho being the surname), a South Korean residing legally in the US since 1992 and enrolled as a student at Virginia Tec, walked into a residence hall and murdered two people. The police received a 911 call at 7:15 a.m. EDT and responded to what they at first took to be a “simple” domestic case. But at 9:45 a.m. EDT they received a second 911 call with reference to gunshots fired in Norris hall. Cho Seung-Hui had killed a total of 33 people (including himself) by the time the police reached the second floor where he was.
Quite predictably the mass media immediately started speculating about the weapons used and bemoaning the expiration of the illegal “Assault Weapons Ban” that had been instituted by Congress during the reign of William Jefferson Clinton in the US White House. Apparently, to hear some of the reports, fully automatic, auto mobile weapons of mass destruction with cavernous reservoirs of ammunition had propelled themselves onto the campus at Virginia Tech and ended the lives of 33 people and sent many more to the hosptial, seriously wounded. Like I said, it was quite predictable. Far be it from the US and International media to recognize that some people simply do evil things. And it matters not if they have access to firearms or not.
Let’s look for a moment at the issue of “readily available firearms”. I live in a country where the least expensive firearm will set you back four months wages, calculated at the national minimum wage – which the vast majority of the people do not earn. In order to purchase a firearm you have to jump through numerous hoops composed of red tape. You have to fill out the form requesting permission to obtain a weapon. You have to provide a letter stating why you need a weapon. You have to submit a doctor’s statement that you are physically and mentally fit to handle firearms. You have to provide a certificate of completion of a weapons handling course. You have to provide a paper from your local municipal government stating that you live at a certain address. You have to provide an affidavit of employment or a letter from your employer. You have to provide a color copy of your national ID card that has been blown up 150%. You have to provide two letters of recommendation from individuals stating that you are trustworthy to obtain a firearm. And you can only purchase a weapon (legally) from the Army store at your local army base – your selection being limited to those weapons that the national command has deemed worthy of manufacture or importation. And once you obtain your weapon you are limited to 100 rounds of ammunition for it every 6 months. At horrendous prices. A six month ration will cost you half a month’s salary – or more if it is a caliber that is not produced within the country.
So, this should be a safe and secure country by most journalistic standards. After all, none of the unwashed masses has ready access to firearms! But recently the local police did a publicity stunt to show how well they are protecting us. Since firearms are difficult to obtain the local thugs have started carrying all manner of cutting instruments and the police have collected over 5,000 such weapons since the beginning of the year – claiming to have prevented over 5,000 muggings and murders by doing so. A look at the weapons spread out in the city’s main park shows some interesting items. Pieces of hacksaw blade sharpened and with the plastic part of a Bic lighter used as a handle. Common kitchen knives. A variety of cheap, chinese made pocket knives. Machetes in all states of use, abuse and wear. Even halves of pairs of scissors and scraps of metal sharpened with a rag wrapped around them to protect the user. Screw drivers sharpened to points. ALL MANNER OF IMPROVISED WEAPONS! And I know many people who have been mugged by thugs wielding such weapons. My wife and I met a fellow on a dark street one night who was carrying such a weapon. We were not mugged because of my air of self confidence and “I’ll dance the dance you call the tune for” attitude. The potential mugger who was openly carrying the weapon in his hand merely asked for a coin and I politely refused – while my eyes never left his face and my attitude projected a “Don’t make me feed that to you” statement. In fact, I never clearly saw the weapon since I was locked onto his face from a distance back. It was afterwards that my wife said “Did you see that KNIFE he had?” to which I said “Yes”, because I was aware he had something in that hand but had made up my mind that he’d never get a chance to get close enough to use it.
But I digress. My point is, in the absence of firearms those who would commit mayhem will do so with anything else that is to hand. Any piece of scrap iron, glass or even wood or plastic can be shaped into a dangerous weapon in the hands of an experienced mugger. A wide variety of tools can be used not only to build things but also to take lives. It is not a matter of whether a person has access to weapons, it’s a matter of what they do with them. And that depends on the person. Many friends of mine gathered in Arkansas recently. They had hundreds of firearms of all kinds, from muzzle loading to fully automatic. Untold thousands of rounds of ammunition were sent down range. And yet no one threatened anyone else nor did anyone attempt to cause harm to another. The camaraderie was evident and the goodwill expressed would be incredible to those believe that weapons and those who possess them are evil.
So, what happened at VT? A mentally unbalanced person walked into an area that had been declared “Gun Free” and took the lives of 32 innocent people before ending his own existence. The last I heard no one had come forward with a good explanation for “Why” unless it was because of a problem brought on by romantic attachment to a fellow student. But certainly this COULDN’T happen! After all, THE COLLEGE ADMINISTRATION HAS FORBIDDEN THE CARRYING OF WEAPONS ON THE VIRGINIA TECH CAMPUS!!! Surely the very fact that the Administration PROHIBITS firearms should make folks safe! Unfortunately such decrees only provide “thug friendly” atmospheres. Huh? Yep, you heard right. Declaring “No one may carry weapons here.” is just a notice to thugs that they can do what they want – unimpeded by the law abiding. After all, only the law abiding would abide by such a law, regulation or whatever you want to call it.
The non-law abiding are the ones we have to worry about though. This simple matter is one that is all to often overlooked. It is already illegal to rob, rape or murder. In some jurisdictions the last two crimes STILL warrant the death penalty. In other words, everyone KNOWS they are serious matters and they are dealt with in a serious way for the most part. And yet, there are still robberies committed, people killed and women (and men) raped by those who regard not the laws of men or God. And our society is currently producing more and more such criminals. Each year thousands of murderers and rapists are set loose on society. In our infinite wisdom as a nation we have deemed ourselves too “civilized” to execute the proper punishment for murder or rape – the death penalty. We as a nation think that we’re smarter than God who commanded that those who shed the blood of man or who force a woman to have sexual intercourse with them should be put to death. After all, we are “compassionate” – but towards those very people who have no compassion on our society and who commit heinous crimes against innocent people.
And so we continue to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that nothing is wrong, everything is OK. After all, it’s those evil, horrid weapons that are to blame. And we create more and more places where people can be easily preyed upon by those who do not recognize society’s laws as applying to them or regulating their behavior in any way. We as a nation want to feel safe, and so we say “In this or that place we are safe – don’t you DARE try to provide for your own self protection within these holy boundaries!” Airports, churches, schools, court houses and more have been declared immune to random acts of violence. We are to pretend the emperor has clothing even though it is obvious he’s stark naked! Not only that, we are to depend upon the government to provide for us protection – even though time after time it has been proven in courts of law that the police have NO duty to protect any individual. That’s right, they don’t HAVE to show up just because you dial 911. And even if they DO show up they can take minutes or hours to respond – giving any perpetrator ample opportunity to escape. After all, that’s what apparently happened yesterday at Virginia Tech. The police arrived, locked down the dormitory and started to investigate – while the perpetrator was re-arming himself and preparing to inflict even greater levels of destruction upon the defenseless populace.
So, how can we prevent such incidents from happening again? The simple answer is “We can NOT prevent such incidents from happening.” However, we CAN ensure that people have at least the opportunity to fight back rather than cower and await the inevitable. On August 1, 1966 Charles Whitman went up in the Tower at the University of Texas, took the lives of 15 people and wounded 31 more. The death toll was not higher because individual citizens brought out their own personal weapons and assisted the police in pinning down the sniper until he was finally killed. If only some of the students and faculty at VT had carried personal weapons, perhaps many deaths would have been prevented. Instead, Cho ran wild like a weasel in a chicken coop – largely unopposed. One professor, Liviu Librescu, however, stood up to him by holding a door while many students escaped through the window. He gave his life so that others could live, setting an example just like Todd Beamer and the rest on Flight 93 did on September 11, 2001 – to bad more folks aren’t paying attention.
It was only a matter of time before a tragedy like this one happened. For too long people have ignored the facts and pretended “it can’t happen HERE!”. The sad news is “Yes, it CAN happen here too!” It is time people started taking control of their own lives and quit depending on ineffectual government agencies for their well being.
Computing differently
Obviously, anyone reading this blog has at least a passing interest in computers – or you’d not be on the Internet reading this blog! 
 A recent spate of e-mails on an e-mail list I belong to was sparked by yet another new windoze based virus. It shows that we also care about security and usability when it comes to computing. However, not all of us are tech savy -some are barely able to switch on the box and connect to the internet to download e-mail.
Lately we’ve been hearing about this Linux stuff, but it can be a bit daunting to folks who aren’t sure how their computer works and reallydon’t want to mess anything up. If you’d like to get a taste of whatLinux is, but don’t want to commit to a long term relationship, you can use one of the “Live CD’s” or “Live DVD’s” with some version of Linux installed on it.
These CD’s and DVD’s are available for download in an ISO format (That’s an image of a CD or DVD that allows you to make an exact copy with your CD or DVD burner) Right now I’ve got various generations of Linux in different flavors. Ubuntu, Knoppix, Fedora Core 6, and a couple others I’m to lazy to go look at right now to remind me what they are. The way they work is you put them in your CD or DVD drive on your computer and then restart the machine. You’ll have to set it to boot from the CD/DVD drive and each computer works differently there. I’d suggest you look in your manual for information if you don’t know how to do that. Anyway, once you reboot to the CD/DVD the Live CD/DVD will start right
up and run the program right on your computer. This will let you see how things work without worrying about installing or overwriting your windoze installation.
For newbies to Linux, there’s a few things to keep in mind. If there’s a glitch on your computer some versions of Linux simply won’t run. But neither will WinXP. I’ve got one motherboard that Linux simply will not install to a hard drive connected to it. Nor will a Live CD work with it – but I also can’t install WinXP on it either. Yep, it’s on the way to the dump someday – perhaps. I still haven’t tried it with Win ’98 – and I’m a glutton for punishment and refuse to give up until a piece of hardware is confirmed to be 100% dead.
For those of you who are interested in messing with video, etc. Take a look at Video Linux. It’s a version of Linux setup to allow you to mess around with Video. So far I’ve just downloaded and burned the ISO but haven’t had time to play with it. The concept is intriguing and we’ll see what happens when I get a chance to play with it.
There are more distributions out there than you can shake a stick at. All kinds of “flavors” of Linux that will do different things or are set up for certain applications only. I’d suggest you stick with one of the major distributions at first, Fedora Core 6 (based on Redhat Enterprise) or SuSE’s latest. You can get both the full ISO (For DVD or CD) or a Live CD ISO for either of them. That’ll let you at least get a taste of what you can do with Linux.
And Linux can breath new life into an old computer. We were able to upgrade our work machines to fairly recent technology. This frees up a couple of older boxes to play with.
