what a surprise

     The revelations came out this week that the Internet is being spied upon regularly, with many of the largest providers giving access to the government.   Sine the Internet basically came from government-designed and funded networks in the first place, there is no real surprise here.    Government designs and builds a worldwide communications network;   Government spies upon it’s gift to the world.    Surprise, surprise.   

 

      What does seem to be a loss is the comfortable illusion we had of the Internet as an open free-for-all.   In the beginning it seemed wide open, for good or ill, and anything was possible.   Now it seems  reduced to just another outpost of the TSA, another place to be scrutinized in minute detail.  I pity the young people coming up, who never even knew the illusion of what the Net used to be.    Our ever-present spy apparatus is keeping them safe, and laying bare their lives.   Privacy vs security, and security wins.     What more can I say?

-end

This just in

Now available for your light summertime reading pleasure - A Strange Enterprise.

http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Enterprise-Collection-Speculations/dp/0615818072/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368914341&sr=1-4&keywords=A+Strange+Enterprise

Enjoy!

A strange day

May 3, that is.  Over 24 hours of snowfall right here in Des Moines, Iowa.  Amazing.   Something I have never seen in all my years.   I do recall a mid-April snowstorm around 1981, that wiped out many a flower garden.   But this one really takes the cake.   It felt so surreal, looking out the window at work, and seeing everything in black-and-white relief, just like it looked in December - or February.     Part of my mind thought  “was all that greenery and balmy breezes a ruse?  Are we stuck in perpetual winter - a new ice age?”

 

     The weatherman says it is not so.   It should warm up to the 60’s by this weekend, 70s by next week.    All I can say is, it better.   Not fair being robbed of spring like this.  Who knows what the summer will bring - maybe 100s followed by 50’s.      Strange - a day to tell your grandkids about someday.     

 

(feels like any other Friday - only cold!)

 

 

A little about a lot - this and that

Wonder why these truckers do not monitor the height of their loads?   They are always crashing into overpasses and bridges, despite signs and warnings?   Can there not be some standardization of bridge heights and/or load sizes?    Every one has an excuse from the drivers  (they just hook up and haul)  on up the chain.   Can no one take respnsibility for this expensive, ongoing debacle?   Seriously?  Ridiculous.

So ther are three accomplices to the Boston bombings.   Good, lock them up and throw away the key.  Thou shalt not blow people up, nor help those who do.

The Keystone pipeline helps no one but the oil companies.   Why not build a refinery in Canada?  They figure it is somehow easier to ship the oil 3,000 miles south and then refine it?   Hmmm.   Yeah, let's pollute the Oglala aquifer, where the entire midwestern US draws drinking water from.   Who needs clean water anymore - we can sip crude and breathe gas.  Yeah.

We somehow need to go in and prevent the Syrian government from using poison gas on their people.   And we need to bomb Iran to protect Israel.   We can't even keep Afghanistan under control.   What if we declared an invasion on the U.S. and did some nation-building here at home.  Repair decaying bridges and roads, but also enhance our energy grid, and help renovate inner-city housing.   Help make the US a modern country - again.   

Just wondering.

Earth Day 2013

You call this progress?

We have planted trees all over the city,

Oftentimes right up next to each other.
Recycling bins are ubiquitous,
education programs rampant.

But 40-acre or 160-acre plots still vanish,

trees and grass bulldozed for massive
family fitness centers with spacious
parking lots.   For all those big SUVS.

Enormous data centers come in to

suck our power and water resources,
employing a few lucky or unlucky souls.
The mantra of economic benefits gets chanted.

Their secrecy is understandable considering

what they take from future generations,
and what they offer as compensation.
Environment thieves do not openly advertise.

Hope that future generations enjoy

poking their gadgets and playing games,
while they breathe some foul soup that will pass for air,
and wonder where all the real trees and real angry birds
disappeared to, once upon a time, before they were born.

-end

Conquering Virus Day Three

The misery sneaks up on you,

one minute you feel okay,
the next a barrage of sneezes escape;
Nose drips steadily as you run for a tissue.

Thinking feels clear even though sinuses hurt,

head stuffed with cold crud instead of ideas sought.
You keep thinking, “why bother?   May as well watch TV”
But then who would know about your second bad cold of this year?

Someone has to document the misery, the intensifying sneezing,

scratchy throat, headaches, malaise.    Who better to tell it
than the person who is sick with it?

Rhyming lyrical style is beyond your patience today.

Just want to get it down before dashing for another
tissue, cold pill, coffee or even cookie.
Whatever it takes.
Damn cold.
Yuck.


 - end

Here we go again

So here we go again.   Another series of bombings, more bloodshed, tragedy, disaster.   Hand-wringing and soul-searching, and asking why.   Don’t have any answers here, just questions.     How can we allow dangerous weapons to proliferate on our streets, like gasoline in a burning village?    How can we allow members of a religion into our country, when every time there is a terrorist attack, it is by a member of this same religion?   Why we cannot hold a normally festive event like a marathon any more without being fearful?    Don't know.

 

     My heart is greatly saddened today.    While I realize that our nation was never perfect, and always has had difficult times, it seems that these days there is so much more random killing and senseless violence.    It just defies logic.  But it is the world we live in, however depressing.   Hang in there, everyone.    And hug a loved one tonight - they probably need it.