About Liberty

Blogging is something I do for myself. I've been blogging since Sept. 2003, mostly about politics, guns, and observations about the word around me.

Occupy Galveston

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Liberty

The Occupy 5 at Galveston

The Occupy Galveston folks were all set up on the seawall this afternoon. There were only 5 of them although I believe one may have been just a passerby. They were older than most of the Occupy people that I’ve seen on the tube around the country, and they were enjoying themselves. There isn’t any encampment and the area around them was pretty clean. I wonder if they realize that most of their complaints are pretty much the same as the TEA Partiers and libertarians, and that the fix for their issues just might be Hope and Change for November. If they change their minds perhaps all those signs could be made into a shelter or two.

Yes, Galveston different and Occupy Galveston is likely different from any of the other Occupy groups.

Caustic Racial Politics

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Liberty

A new law went in effect for the New Year in Chicago. This time it is Nannyism to protect surfs from caustic chemicals.

The law, which took effect Sunday, requires those who seek to buy caustic or noxious substances, except for batteries, to provide government-issued photo identification that shows their name and date of birth. The cashier then must log the name and address, the date and time of the purchase, the type of product, the brand and even the net weight.

While the new law might be considered a nuisance, it takes on a racial implication with Holders claim that asking for an ID is racial discrimination.

Eric Holder has been on a racialist bender the last few weeks. Last week, he said his skin color is responsible for the fury of criticism over his Justice Department allowing thousands of guns to flood Mexico. Friday, he blocked South Carolina from implementing a voter ID law under the Voting Rights Act saying it was racially discriminatory.

Sixteen states, including South Carolina, must submit all election law changes to the United States Justice Department for approval. States also have the option of bypassing DOJ and going straight to court for approval, an option they should readily choose. This law, unlike so many federal laws, actually has a legitimate Constitutional basis – the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which bars racial discrimination in voting. Passed in 1965, it was designed to prevent states from drifting toward renewed discrimination. It is now being challenged as unconstitutionally outdated by Arizona and Shelby County (AL) in federal court.

I believe its really racism of convenience. Leftist prefer to call actions racist only if it suits their political agenda. If something promotes nannyism or big government then PC arguments don’t accept that an action is racist. But removing dead peoples voter rights is racist, because there are more minority dead voters than dead WASP voters.

Stacking Rocks in Galveston

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Liberty

Scattered alters of stacked sandstone red rock.

We went to Sedona a few weeks ago for some R & R a beautiful place that has a reputatation as a gathering place for mystics, hippys and other odd sorts. I wasn’t surprise when I visited the Airport Mesa, a place concidered a vortex, that people had stacked the red sandstone rocks to make pillers. These seemed to me to be a sort of hippy alter built assist communication with some unknown god. The formations were scattered but all around the area. I wondered what the people were thinking that would spend the time gathering and stacking these stones. It is what one should expect in the land of hippies and new agers I supposed. I have seen lots of silly things in Galveston, we here tend not to take things very seriously, and do have an apreciate of art and music, but I never expected this type of thing here.

Hundreds of rock stack alters on Galveston's Seawall.

On the seawall at Fort Crockett Park there was a breakwater built into the seawall made up of broken limestone rocks of various sizes. Over the last few months its grown to something rather large if not surreal. The people I saw stacking rocks seemed to be just kids doing it just for fun. But some of these were pretty massive. Every one has things they like to do for fun and entertainment, but making rock piles seems pretty weird to me. One expects to find the hippys and newagers in Sedona, but here in Galveston?? It just doesn’t seem right. I wonder now if Fort Crockett Park isn’t a new vortex. A letter to the editor of the Galveston Daily News implies that at least someone thinks these things have some value and they may be a tourist attraction. We were promised that the enhancements to Crockett Park would be a tourist attraction. I don’t think stacked rocks was what they had in mind though.

A collection of artwork involving stacks of rocks has drawn visitors to Fort Crockett Park in Galveston.

Vandalism Shows A Lack Of Appreciation

I am appalled, disgusted, furious (I could go on) because some idiot, ruffian, criminal, fool (I could go on) has knocked down many of the stacked rocks on the beach at about 49th Street.

They were beautiful, peaceful, intriguing to look at and already had become a tourist/resident attraction. People were stopping by to take photos, admire the work and even try their hands at stacking.

This is the second time that I am aware of that they have been destroyed. I do not know what can be done, but it is a sad commentary on contemporary society that this has happened.

We can only hope and pray that the artist or artists come back and restore these fantastic stackings.

I don’t really have any issue with any of this, but I do find it a bit strange. Art is all in the eye of the beholder, and in this case perhaps the builder.

Folks Stacking rocks on the Galveston Seawall

Magic Jack Review

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Liberty

When Hurricane Ike struck here on Galveston Island we lost our phone service. By the time we moved back in we got used to using our cell phones and restoring our landlines had a low priority. for a while we put our phone service on “vacation hold” but eventually we just realized that the hookup fees and the extra monthlies didn’t worth it and we let it go.

I did miss having a landline, talking on a real phone for long calls is more comfortable, and although we have lots of spare minutes, unexepected events can add up to extensive cell phone time. So we decided to give Magic jack a try. At $69 for the first year it seems to be worth a shot.

I ordered it on line and a few days later our new Magic Jack plus arrived. It contained the Magic Jack Plus dongle a small 110 volt to USB power unit, a short usb extender and an ethernet cable. Equality picked up a cordless 3 phone set to go with it.

The Magic Jack needs to be connected to a computer to configure and attach a phone number to it. The Device works with Windows and Mac machines it is not Linux compatable. Once it is all configured it can be connected directly to a router directly won”t need a computer anymore.

Once the Magic Jack Plus is plugged into the computer the program is automagically installed and started. The user is guided to selecting a phone number or to transfer their existing number. The menus selections have some upsell options, but is pretty easy to navigate anf only takes 10 or 15 minutes. After the Magic Jack + is configured the user has the option of leaving it plugged into the computer, or to connect it up to the network.

The Good

The good news is that the Magic Jack Plus works and it is pretty cheap. The sound quality is excellent exceeding that of cell phones. It delivers on what I expected and wanted. Unlike the old Magic Jack a computer doesn’t have to be up and running. As I type this Vonage is and Comcast are advertising their basic services at around $20 to $30 dollars a month about what the yearly rate is for Magic Jack Plus.

The Bad

Magic Jack isn’t without some issues. If you use it to replace a regular phone line You have more points of failure. If you lose cable or power or a router failure you lose your phone. One might consider putting A phone Modems, Router and Magic Jack on a UPS. These are low power devices

Their built in service includes an service which will pick up the phone after 4 rings. The answering service announces it is a Magic Jack service. If you wish to use your own answering machine you have to set it to pick up on the 3rd ring. This doesn’t give much time to answer the phone. It would be nice if we could have the choice of disabling automatic answering altogether.

The Ugly

It came as no surprise to find that their support is lousy. It is only available via Web Chat. and that it is pretty lousy. The web and forums are full of complaints about their service support. I had attempted to reclaim my old home phone line. We had abandoned the number 2 years ago, but it still isn’t in use. The installation accepted my old number, and it reported the number as my ID when I dialed into my cell. I couldn’t call into my phone. I didn’t know what the problem was and and called support via the chat. They had me reconfigure reboot and moved me up to whats called a 10% level support and she ran me they ran me through the same procedures. Finally she gave up, and told me they would refer me to engineering and they would get back to me. I was on chat for about an hour.

After the unsuccessful chats I checked my email before I prepared to leave for the day. I found an email with a time stamp of 6:02am that I received just as I was beginning the support chat telling me that my phone number transfer was unsuccessful. I went back and picked out another phone number and everything worked properly. It seems to me that the support people should have been able to find this out.

Conclusions:

Magic Jack plus delivers a good quality phone line, Once it is up and running there should be little need for any support. Set up and configuration is straightforward, but a user might be in trouble if they are need in need of customer support. There are some preresiquites to get the Magic Jack working.

A Windows or Apple Computer
A good Highspeed Internet connection. To use the system without a computer you will probably need a router with an available ethernet connection. One can connect through a computer that has a highspeed internet connection, but if the computer goes down there is no phone. Using the computer to make the connection might be a good option for those who have only WiFi service in their homes.
A phone. A regular plain old corded phone should work. but the Magic Jack might not be able to power more than one or 2 non powered phones. A regular corded phone requires power to ring the phone.

People who live or spend time out of the country might find this particularly usefull. One can set it up using a stateside phone number and call abe called without dealing with international rates or calling plans. The unit is very small and can be used with regular headset and mike available anywhere. I am happy with mine because I can use a regular phone and line. I can send or receive a fax if I want to. Its probably never going to be a real minutes saver on my phone because I get free minutes on my cell service if talking to others on the same plan. So I if I call one of the phones in my family with this its going to count toward my minutes.

The bottom line is this thing works and is cheap.

The GoDaddy Boycott Busts, Sort of

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Liberty

Thursday was the scheduled day for the boycott of Go Daddy over SOPA. Go Daddy has gone from supporting SOPA to pulling support from SOPA to claiming SOPA and PIPA is a bad idea. I don’t know how sincere they are but it’s apparrent they were bleeding customers and their trust.

While GoDaddy had previously withdrawn its support for SOPA, until Thursday’s statement, the company had not voiced public disagreement towards the bill,which the House Judiciary Committee had been debating before adjourning for the holiday.

According to Yahoo, about 70,000 domains had already been switched before Thursday’s planned boycott. While these numbers aren’t extremely consequential to a company that hosts 50 million websites worldwide, these withdrawals along with high profile moves from Wikipedia, Cheezburger and image sharing site Imgur seem to have been enough to force GoDaddy’s hand.

Now, I don’t believe for a minute that Go Daddy is genuine in their recant of SOPA, their only regret is that their customer base found out that they have Hollywood’s interest over their customers. The damage is done, they’ve helped craft the bill and supported it through the committee hearings it really doesn’t matter any more whether they support it or not. Until we see proof that they will actually fight online censorship.

Go Daddy isn’t the only company that has supported SOPA and PIPA there is News Corp (Foxnews), CBS (C-Net), NBC and Disney. Just about all of the media, We don’t hear much about boycotting them. Go Daddy struck our ire because we expected them to support their customers and the open internet.

I seriously considered pulling my domain. I decided to wait. I have 2 domains, and am well paid up until for the next several months. If I were to bail on Go Daddy Thursday, they would still have my money, yet not have to provide any services. This would hardly be punishing them. On the other hand I can’t see renewing my services with them, Later on this summer I will move my sites to Host Gator. I will do so when I have used up my contract, and have the time to ensure that I can move this blog safely.

Free States and Illinois

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Liberty

Losing our rights on the road;

When we crossed the Ohio River from Paducah, KY to Metropolis, Illinois this afternoon, I had to unload my Ruger LCR and lock it away. Unlike in the antebellum days when crossing the Ohio River meant going from a slave state to a free state, it has now been metaphorically reversed. We went from a free state to one that views personal freedom as an anathema.

I must say I felt a little naked driving with no self-protection.

One of these days, the people of Illinois will have the same freedoms as the rest of the 49 states. Until then, I will need to increase my level of situational awareness.

Go Daddy Bites the Hand that Feeds Them

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Liberty

Passing SOPA would be a web owners worst nightmare. Godaddy’s support of it is a stand against its customers, SOPA and its sister bill, PROTECT IP Act, in the Senate is a bad idea that promises to censor and restrict the web as we know it, and threatens the very existance of websites like this that don’t have a staff of lawyers and editors to maintain compliance. It is understandable that if not to be expected that Godaddy has pissed of its customers base.

There has been a tremendous backlash against GoDaddy.

Talk of a Go Daddy boycott began yesterday on community link-sharing site Reddit, and quickly grew to include several influential business leaders and media personalities. Among them were Y Combinator founderPaul Graham, Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh and celebrity/investor Ashton Kutcher. The company’s change-of-heart was announced today around the same time Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales Tweeted he would be transferring Wikipedia’s domains from Go Daddy in protest.

Go Daddy initially shrugged off the protests, issuing a nonchalant response to let people know it hasn’t negatively impacted its business — which was the equivalent of shaking the hell out of a giant beehive and not expecting to get stung. Boycott participators responded by publishing step-by-step tutorials for transferring a bulk of domains to a new registrar, complete with recommendations to competitors.

Go Daddy’s response didn’t get to to the heart of it. They basically claimed that SOPA might be poorly written, although they support the basic idea behind it, they are withdrawing support. They didn’t offer to fight it it or withdraw support from the Senate’s PROTECT IP ACT. It gets worse for Go Daddy.

Hosting and domain registrar company Go Daddy has lost more than 37,000 domains in the past two days due to the company’s wishy-washy stance on the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Talk of a Go Daddy boycott began yesterday on community link-sharing site Reddit, and quickly grew to include several influential business leaders and media personalities. Among them were Y Combinator founderPaul Graham, Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh and celebrity/investor Ashton Kutcher. The company’s change-of-heart was announced today around the same time Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales Tweeted he would be transferring Wikipedia’s domains from Go Daddy in protest.

Go Daddy initially shrugged off the protests, issuing a nonchalant response to let people know it hasn’t negatively impacted its business — which was the equivalent of shaking the hell out of a giant beehive and not expecting to get stung. Boycott participators responded by publishing step-by-step tutorials for transferring a bulk of domains to a new registrar, complete with recommendations to competitors.

37,000 in two days before Christmas, looks like the beginning of an avalanche of bailouts. Now I’m left with a dillema. This blog and the domain is hosted by Go Daddy, I’m paid up ahead, and I’ve been pretty happy with their service. Host Gater is a local Houston Company has a good reputation, and is opposed to Govenment and Hollywood censorship. Their statement opposing SOPA:

Imagine if you were able to genetically combine Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Darth Vader and Barbara Streisand into one horrifically terrifying being. Now imagine that being is actually a piece of proposed legislature — the terrifying creation in your midst would then be the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which is currently being considered by the House.

SOPA, aka H.R. 3261 is a bill right now in the House sponsored by R-TX Lamar Smith. It’s not just any bill though, it’s a bill that would allow the USDOJ, RIAA, MPAA and anyone else who lobbies for the entertainment industry to effectively censor the internet to suit their needs.

So, I’ve got a lot to consider. moving the content and the domain is a scary thing, a lot of work and some money. Perhaps if Go Daddy took a substantial stand to actually fight this thing my decision would be a little easier. A significant donation to someone like the Electronic Frontier Foundation perhaps?

Thoughts on Requiring an ID

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Liberty

Eric Holder is blocking South Carolina’s new law which requires that voters provide ID to qualify their right to vote. The Justice Department claims that requiring an ID is racist. I’m not sure I understand why requiring folks to provide proper identification is racist. Is requiring travelers to provide an ID racist when at the airport? I wonder if the attorney general will demand that sellers quit insisting that gun purchasers provide an ID.

If someone can please explain to me why requiring an ID to vote is racist, than why shouldn’t the practice be outlawed on the more routine things. Voting is inherently more dangerous than buying a gun or flying Perhaps it’s only considered racist when states require the ID, and alright when when it is a federal mandate.

A few weeks ago I was at the Toyota Center in Houston. When I purchased a beer I was asked for an ID. I’m a bald, greying 60 year old, I thought it was just silly. Now I understand it was racist.

Nightmare on the Interwebs

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Liberty

Alexandra Petri isn’t the only one having nightmares:

Last night I had a horrifying dream that a group of well-intentioned middle-aged people who could not distinguish between a domain name and an IP address were trying to regulate the Internet. Then I woke up and the Judiciary Committee’s SOPA hearings were on.

It’s exactly as we feared. For every person who appears to have some grip on the issue, there were three or four yelling at him.

The experts testifying for SOPA and promising that SOPA won’t be disastrous to the internet, admit they don’t know anything about how it works. The experts on the Web are the folks claiming an end to to the web as we know it. Who do we believe Spielberg who makes Billions making movies, or the folks who actually built the internet?

There ought to be a law, I think, that in order to regulate something you have to have some understanding of it. And when people are saying things like, “This is just the rogue foreign Web sites” and “This only targets the bad actors” and “So you want universities to host illegal pirated versions of copyrighted content?,” it’s enough to make you claw out large fistfuls of your hair. No! No! Nobody is hosting anything. This bill would require service providers to cut off access to entire Web sites where users are deemed to be engaging in copyright infringement, not take down stolen content they posted themselves. That’s already against the law. But no one seemed to be able to express this.

When you have a signed letter from the engineers responsible for creating the Internet pointing out that this bill would jeopardize our cybersecurity, balkanize the Internet and create a climate of uncertainty that would stifle innovation, it seems odd to ignore it. As a general rule, when the people saying that this will have a horrible, chilling impact on something are the ones who created that thing in the first place, and the people who are saying, “Oh, no, it’ll be fine, it only targets the bad actors” are members of the Motion Picture Association of America, it seems obvious whose opinion you should heed.

The problem is the folks with the most influence at the capital aren’t the people with the most knowledge, but the folks willing to spend the moist money for their cause.

A Wiki Boycott

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Liberty

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. is publically considering shutting down Wikipedia in protest of SOPA.

The proposed shutdown has nothing to do with technical problems or money issues, and everything to do with the Stop Online Piracy Act, an anti-piracy bill that has raised the ire of many major technology companies. This past weekend, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales posted a discussion on his Wikipedia user page suggesting that the English-language version of Wikipedia may temporarily go dark to protest the bill, which critics say gives movie studios and other copyright holders unprecedented power to shut down Web sites seen as infringing on their content.

SOPA endangers the very existence of Wikipedia, and most any other site that relies on links or user input. SOPA would criminalize links to sites that offer copyright violations, or other things that offend the sensibilities of the Hollywood crowd. On the surface this might sound reasonable bu the penalties kick in with out trial or court orders and site owners have little opportunity to defend themselves. Web owners and maintainers have a difficult time keeping their websites clean as it is. Most of us don’t want this crap on our sites and work hard and dilligently at keeping our sites clean, but it isn’t our job to protect the Hollywood moguls and their revenues.

SOPA is an attempt to shut down the internet, and restrict voices to only the Hollywood approved. It is an attempt to shutdown search engines like Google or Bing. Google is very worried, and concerned that it will crimminalize every search engine.

An online piracy bill in the House would “criminalize linking and the fundamental structure of the Internet itself,” according to Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Schmidt said the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would punish Web firms, including search engines, that link to foreign websites dedicated to online piracy. He said implementing the bill as written would effectively break the Internet.

“By criminalizing links, what these bills do is they force you to take content off the Internet,” Schmidt said, calling it a form of censorship.

The search giant has been at the forefront of a tech industry backlash against the legislation from House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas).

“If Congress writes a bad law, we all suffer,” Schmidt said.

He compared the proposal to the Web censorship practiced by repressive foreign governments like China and doubled down on that comparison when speaking with reporters after his remarks at the Economic Club of Washington.

If Wikipedia shuts down in protest of the of SOPA I will pull the plug on my little Wiki , and if I can safely take my blog down for the duration I will take down this blog. The Wiki is easy, I can literally just pull the plug.

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Observations from a Yankee Living in Galveston

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