Cringe

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Sometimes I get photos that make even me cringe. It's very rare, but this is one of those photos. I don't think it is, but I really hope it's fake, because it looks like bad news. Not for the faint of heart, and definitely not safe for work!

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Wow…

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

First of all, I have no idea why IAM was out last night — my assumption is that the power cycled and I just don't have it set up properly to automatically turn things back on, and because this satellite is so unreliable, I don't have a monitor on it. But as far as I can tell it's nothing to worry about.

Congress last week passed the homeland security bill, and yesterday the Senate passed it (90-9 no less!) as well. This article has some information on it (although a couple small changes were made since that article was written), but to simplify, the main issue is massive data consolidation. That is, a single government file will contain not only your passport, social security, driver's info, court records, and so on, but also every note ever made about you by any agency, as well as every school grade, every travel plan you've made, your medical records, every credit card purchase you've made, your internet browsing records, and so on.*

The above sounds unbelievable, I know, but data-mining permissions to do this are built into the bill — this literally represents the end of privacy for American citizens. In addition, the bill amends the FOIA act and bans citizens from inquiring about the actions of the government on this subject and bans them from asking what information has been collected. This FOIA ammendment extends secondary protection as well (so when the power company hands over your records they can't tell anyone they did so, or in the case of a story I've featured before, when the librarian hands over your records they can't tell)

The EFF has also been campaigning against this bill, in part because of its inclusion of the “Cyber Security Enhancement Act” which allows ALL government agencies (everyone from the feds to the local cops to even high school principals) access to your email and voicemail without a warrant or probable cause.

The bill contains other provisions as well such as forced vaccinations of entire communities, and legal protection for vaccine manufacturers so if things go wrong the injured public has no legal recourse. I could go on and on about it, but it's pretty messed up…

I wonder often how far the government can push the American public before they revolt; how many rights are you willing to give up? At this point the American citizen is pretty much the least free demographic group in the Western World (not that most are aware of it I suspect). But then I think back to Vietnam — people on the whole were willing to have their sons and daughters snatched from their homes to be killed overseas in a war that was considered unjust, and they didn't revolt. So I guess most people will die before they'll revolt, as long as McDonalds keeps selling Big Macs.

“Would you like fries with your slavery?”

For me though, I guess it's time to start moving my corporate and financial assets out of the US. It's not worth the risk any more. I suspect many companies that have that option will start taking it as well.

PS. Did Osama come back, or was I imagining that?

* I'll ignore that it's been spearheaded by the guy who run the Iraq-Contra affair and was convicted of five counts of misleading congress but saved from prison because he was given immunity by the government.

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A story

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

I dropped off the Jeep today (I just don't have the tools here to do the diff), and on the way there I passed a convoy carrying a half dozen tanks, with probably more behind them. I assume they're being shipped from Petawawa (north of us) down to Trenton air base to be shipped to Iraq, but I'm not entirely sure considering Canada's scaled back military role right now. Anyway, it made me think I should tell a (sort of) war story that I don't think I've told here before.

I get asked pretty regularly how I feel about the German part of my family, since there were of course many on that side that served military duty during the second world war in aid of the Nazi party. My great uncle was even in the SS as a U-Boat captain, but my grandfather's story is very different. To set it into motion, even though I look like my father and I think take after him, everyone in my family swears up and down that personality-wise I'm just like my grandfather.

When he was eighteen years old he was called up for working service (working service is what you did before serving your military service). My grandfather was a pacifist and hated Hitler (as did many Germans, as now many Americans hate Bush), so he deserted the work camp and hid in a plough furrow in a nearby field — he was of course found easily. He got labelled as emotionally disturbed and after spending about six months in a military asylum he was declared unfit for military service and dismissed. He's dead now, but when asked about it he says that it was the sanest thing he ever did.

After the war, when there was a risk that the Russians were going to take the rest of Germany (ie. not just the East) he bought a large sailboat and taught himself to sail so that if things ever got goofy he could escape with his family on it. As luck would have it, American occupation of Germany kept the Russian influence out of West Germany, but at that point he'd already cut off ties with most of the family — they thought he was a fool for going to such extreme lengths to protect his family.

Then currency reform started happening, and my grandfather was forced to sell the boat and because things were uncertain he took his savings and packed up his young family and moved everyone to South Africa, a place where he felt he could live with both freedom and privacy. Eventually this path brought him to Canada. He also totally isolated himself from anyone who didn't accept his views on freedom and privacy and as a result spent most of his life without his parents and brothers and sisters.

My grandmother thinks these actions were the biggest mistakes he ever made, but to me, I see a man of principle willing to make personal sacrifices for the things he believed in. Anyway, I'm not sure now why I told that story. I think maybe I wrote it for Rachel to give her a little more insight into who I am and why I do some of the things I do… I worry that one day she may resent some of my actions as much as my grandmother resents those my grandfather made.

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Hats Galore!!!

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

Since we started making stuff, we've wanted to do nice toques. Problem is, every sample we'd seen was pretty crappy quality. Anyway, we finally got some back and they are awesome. They turned out so well — click on the photos below for some closeups or click here for their page on BMEshop.

Anyway, they're slick. Neither of the two models particularly wanted to model this morning, but pretend they're as thrilled about these hats as I am. We also have the skull (the one that was on the rock t's) design on its way… And, courtesy of Danielle's clothing company (I don't even know what it's called… BME: The Beazer Manufacturing Empire?), here are two prototypes for a new line of hats based on the BME Kid's Club characters:

Those will be available in a limited edition run later this winter. The toques above are in stock now; they'll move quickly though so you might want to grab one.

Finally, an update on the scrapbook: as you know, they're at the bindery. The softcovers, barring catastrophe, will definitely be done by week's end, and the hardcovers (which take more time as the covers are sewn not glued) should be as well, so they should all ship on Monday. The print house is aware of the time constraints and is doing everything it can to go as quickly as possible.

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I'm the nice housemate

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

Jason is the person here that's not on IAM (no mods). He's a nice guy, but kind of annoying at times so he tends to be the butt of jokes… I walked into the TV room a couple days ago at the end of a Rachel-makes-fun-of-Jason session.

Jason: You know, it seems like she kind of hates me.
Rachel: I'd say "hate" is too weak of a word.
Shannon: I'd say "she" is too specific of a word.

The only thing he really does that annoys me is leave a lot of garbage lying around the yard for me to clean up (if I don't, the dumb dogs eat it). Anyway, Rob left the note on the left for him. I thought it was maybe a bit harsh, so I lightened it up so as not to hurt his feelings.

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