Thoughts on Gun Ownership

I have had several discussions with two different people who have spent very little time around firearms and because these are people who were not extremely right or left wing personalities I wanted to know what their stance was on individual gun ownership and if they had any leanings one way or the other. Not surprisingly both had been influenced by the recent media blitz against guns as well as the shootings that have taken place this year. Both of them had heard the recent numbers of 80 or 90% of the guns in Mexico had been traced to the US, both were surprised to learn the facts behind the myth. Needless to say those numbers alone are not enough to sway an individual though. Both people could recall any stories of law abiding citizens actually using a weapon in self defense, but both had seen the 60 minutes report stating that non-law enforcement people were more likely to harm themselves or others with a weapon during times of danger. When I told them that I could find at least 6 examples of normal citizens using a firearm to protect their family during the last year, both of them rolled their eyes. I just went to "The Armed Citizen" and guess what I found 6 instances where homeowners used their firearms without harming any innocents from last in two months alone. After hearing the arguments from them, I can definitely understand their point of view to an extent. There are many people out there with guns that do not respect them and would not know what to do if something happened.  On the same note their are even more people in this country with a license for something that can be just as dangerous to themselves and others, a car.

I am curious if the answer to gun ownership / the right to carry should be similar to what we do with vehicles. Anyone can purchase a vehicle of almost any type (even an 18 wheeler) and operate it on their own property without a license or insurance. But once you enter the public domain, it is required for that individual to take a written and physical driving test supposedly certifying they know how to operate said vehicle (how some people get a license I will never know).  Should guns be the same? Would this help aleviate some people's concern about an individual's ability to handle a firearm? We already do this for hunting licenses, personally I would not be opposed to a test for the carry permit, but I am opposed to the government stating what I can and can not own in the confines of my own property. Of the two people I talked to 1 said he would support this type of movement, but the other said that there should also be proof of the security of guns while stored in the home and they should be limited to people who have had proper training to handle them.  Unfortunately I beilieve if something of this nature were instituted in today's administration it could not be trusted and would be accompanied by other items limiting our 2nd Ammendment Freedoms. So needless to say I do not want any additional laws, but I can understand some people's concern.

What are your thoughts? I am curious.

Canadian Help?

CNN acts like the US has not been in Afghanistan, just how out of touch are they that they think the US military has not been there from the beginning.

"As U.S. troops begin increased deployments to Afghanistan, the United States can look to its northern neighbor for insights on the frontlines and the home front."

It goes on to say that Canada increased its number of troops last year 2,800 and have had 117 soldiers killed there. The article also says that Canada has invested $1.2 billion dollars there. I don't know how many US soldiers that have been there, but the fact that the US announced that it was sending an additional 30,000 troops tells me that there is more than Canada's 2,800. The US have had 608 KIA in Afghanistan as of October 2008. There should be no surprise that the number of US soldiers that die per year started to rise as soon as we started turning sectors that the US had previously secured over to other countries for security.

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"we will ride out these hard times together"

Microsoft finally did, unfortunately it was about 7 years too late

Managing Windows 2008 Server Core Local Settings
About 6 years ago I had the pleasure of a one on one meeting with the director of Microsoft Windows Server development. He was meeting with architects from several Enterprise level customers and taking notes and requests on what we would like to see in future versions of Windows. He also wanted to know key reasons why people did not deploy Windows when there was a choice of Windows and Unix/Linux. I was very impressed with how he handled the interviews and how they sought out the actual workers as opposed to going to management for suggestions. During the interview process he had some of the lead programmers from the Windows Server team on speaker phone so that they could participate in the process. Surprisingly noone from Microsoft were defensive or even agitated when parts of Windows were criticized, they simply wanted to learn as much as they could.

At that time (2000 - 2003) we were heavy in the development and hosting of secure financial systems. We were split about half and half Windows and Solaris (few one off Linux boxes, at that time it was still expensive to run SUN hardware). Even though it was more expensive initially to run Solaris, the ROI was quickly obtained through management and uptime. Our Windows Admins were very good and it was rare we had an unplanned outage on the Windows machines, but the continual need to patch for unnecessary parts of the OS like Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer made 99.9% uptime impossible. My number two complaint was the reliance on the GUI and making it necessary to have a physical keyboard, mouse and monitor on each server was making it difficult to manage as the numbers of systems grew, even when using KVMs to manage multiple systems with a single keyboard, mouse and monitor. I had a few other complaints, but on the number 1 and 2 items Microsoft told me they were being addressed and would be available soon (soon turned out to be about 6 years).

I am happy to see M$ is allowing for minimal installs without the reliance on a GUI. They still have items that need to be addressed, like remote management via a command line login, they are still reliant on RDP (terminal services) to get a remote command line (you can do minimal tasks remotely without connecting to a terminal, but sometimes you have to have a command line). This could be easily overcome by including a SSH server as part of the core install, instead of as an additional download of the Unix tools. If just the minimal (or Core as they call it) install would have been made available sooner; they could have prevented or at least slowed the adoption of Linux by many of their customers.

In many ways Windows Server is better than Linux and Solaris, it still lags in several areas, particularly in remote administration and large multi-processor installs (this still hampers Linux as well). While they have given us a big win with the Core install, the Unix Subsystem in the kernel, an easy to administer firewall, hyper-V virtualization and a host of other items, they are now killing us with hard to administer licensing schemes.

With all of its short comings I still believe Windows is the best choice for most SMBs (Small to Medium Business) with 50 or less servers, but companies with a staff knowledgable in Unix, they will benefit from the implementation of a *NIX OS in their infrastructure, particularly if they are running non DOTNET applications or companies using VLDBs (very large databases, requiring 8 or more processors; there are many considerations when choosing database type and OS). Any company using Java for critical apps, should consider using Solaris, SUN invented Java and from my experience it runs best there, although AIX and Linux is closing in fast. AIX is probably the best choice if the Java or C app is not built from ground up with multi-threading in mind. AIX requires the P processor which has the fastest processor speed allowing for extreme performance on single threads, but if you go that route, be prepared to open your pocketbook WIDE. AIX also has the best hardware based virtualization available.

Half-hearted Apology

Napolitano issued a half-hearted apology last Thursday after naming war veterans as a possible threat to the security of the United States.

"This was an assessment, not an accusation," Napolitano continued. "It was limited to extremists those who seek to commit violence within the United States. And all this was meant to do was to give law enforcement what we call 'situational awareness.'"

A footnote in the report,

"Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling
Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," said that while there is no
specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are planning acts of
violence, such acts could come from unnamed "rightwing extremists" concerned
about illegal immigration, abortion, increasing federal power and restrictions
on firearms -- and singled out returning war veterans as susceptible to
recruitment.

She said that this was similar to a report on left wing extremist issued earlier. But there is a big difference; in the earlier report she named specific groups like the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front. Here she named almost all veterans as a possible threat.

"The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist
groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned or
suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today," the
report reads.

She is making a reference to the Oklahoma City Bombing as an example of possible threats. Primarily because this was the only recent example she could find of a veteran doing this sort of thing. Funny that she failed to mention the Washington D.C. sniper who was killing because of his extremist Muslim beliefs (no I don't think all Muslims are terrorists, I know many who are appaled by their extremist brothers). She says she mentions McVeigh because she says that McVeigh received his training in the Army in how to do this sort of thing. I am sorry to inform her, but I have been to US Army Combat Engineer training, and they did not cover blowing up multi-story buildings with truckloads of fertilizer, nor did they cover it when I had my training as an Army Cavalry Scout. And both of these professions cover explosives in great detail as much of their job includes destroying obstacles in both as an offensinve force and as a blocking action in the retreat. While it was effective (Oklahoma City bombing), the military has much better methods of destroying buildings, if you don't believe it just ask the people of Baghdad. So I feel pretty confident that he didn't learn that in the U.S. Army.

If this is the type of person assessing our threat level we are in even more trouble than I thought we were.

Here are some of the official responses to her apology:

"The American Legion is well aware and horrified at the pain inflicted during
the Oklahoma City bombing, but Timothy McVeigh was only one of more than 42
million veterans who have worn this nation's uniform during wartime," Rehbein
wrote. "To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical
'disgruntled military veteran' is unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole
example of Islam."

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, also criticized the report,
saying its portrayal of veterans was "offensive and unacceptable."

"Their leftwing assessment identifies actual terrorist organizations, like the
Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front," House Judiciary Committee
Ranking Member Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said in a statement issued Wednesday. "The rightwing report uses broad generalizations about veterans, pro-life groups,
federalists and supporters of gun rights. That's like saying if you love
puppies, you might be susceptible to recruitment by the Animal Liberation Front.
It is ridiculous and deeply offensive to millions of Americans."

Anyone is a Target including the American Legion

MSNBC Hints GOP a Hate Group Includes Republican symbol on screen during story about right-wing extremism

CNN Smears 'Right Wing' As Nazis
Recycling the mid-1990s liberal smear campaign against grassroots conservatism, CNN has posted an article on the new DHS threat report complete with a Getty Images photo of neo-Nazi and white supremacist flags.

If the report were about Nazi extremists, that picture would be warranted. However, the DHS report warns against an amorphous “right-wing extremism,” failing to mention by name any particular threatening group or intelligence of any planned attacks.

The DHS report did cite returning war veterans as at-risk for recruitment by right-wing extremist groups. It seems strange to think that those men and women who risked their lives to protect this country and their government could be or become Nazis, but that seems to be the implication.

Also note that the unnamed “prominent civil rights organization” that the DHS hit job cites to stoke anti-military paranoia is the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center — which designated the American Legion a “hate group” for its pro-enforcement stance on immigration law.

Read the American Legion Response here

Radical Right Wing Extremist

I think Michelle Malkin has summed it up pretty well. And you can see by the picture that she is not a lilly white racist like the current administration would like everyone to believe about those who oppose his views.

You Might Be A 'Radicalized Right-Wing Extremist' If... By Michelle Malkin April 15, 2009

What and who exactly are President Obama's homeland security officials afraid of these days? If you are a member of an active conservative group that opposes abortion, favors strict immigration enforcement, lobbies to protect Second Amendment rights, protests big government, advocates federalism or represents veterans who believe in any of the above, the answer is: You.

Married with Children

This is the greatest TV Show ever made! Luckily it still plays early in the morning if you can't sleep. This morning Al started hanging out with a gay guy whose husband is taking Peg out dancing. Al almost falls in love with him, because the gay guy cooks and cleans.

TEA Parties

I am curious to how many Americans actually get out and participate today. I had forgotten about this historic event until my client ( I am in Des Moines, Iowa this week ) told me that he was going to be unavailable from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm because for the first time in his life he was joining a protest against the government. When I go in this morning I am going to check to see if he minds if I join him.

Homeland Security Warns of Returning Veterans with Violent Potential

What is sad is the fact that the government knows what is driving people to extremist groups, but instead of curtailing their behavior they are taking steps to alienate returning veterans and put them on watch lists.

Sharpton refers to Pirates as Somali Coast Guard

In Sharpton's defense (I can't believe I just typed that) the Somali's do consider the pirates as a sort of Robin Hood. But talk to anyone who served in Somalia and you will hear just how much the Somalis hate Americans, so my question is why should I care if they consider themselves Coast Guard, they are still an enemy of the U.S. and all it stands for.

SHARPTON (12:08): You can call me now at 1 877 532 5797, (to say) something about the so-called pirates. They call themselves voluntary Coast Guards in Somalia, which may be more apt. Ah, whatever your view.

MSNBC Live Vote: Give President Obama a grade

This is the real deal from MSNBC. The polling is pretty much split just like I thought the country was. Definitely not the 61% approval the media says he has. I checked at 4/3/09 16:03 Eastern Time and there were 1549106 votes at 16:09 there were 1549894  votes and the percentages were about the same.

At the current moment the polling is as follows:
With 1549894 responses
A - 35%
B - 6.9%
C - 4.9%
D - 13%
F- 40%

How much space does a trillion dollars occupy?

Someone sent me a neat site today that actually lets you visualize a trillion dollars.  When you actually see how much space a trillion dollars takes up in $100 bills it is really amazing. They show different views of the money starting with how much 1 million dollars occupy and working their way up, by the way 1 billion occupies 10 pallets of $100 dollar bills.

What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.

$1,000,000,000,000

Another way of thinking about trillions is as follows: - one million seconds is about 11 days - one billion seconds is about 30 years - one trillion seconds 30 thousand years