Parting Thoughts and Shots
I wonder if 2005 was as big a disappointment to you as it was for me. I mean I may as well have called in and sat out a whole year. For all its promise the last few months have pretty-much sucked. The only saving grace was that we had fewer hurricanes that struck my piece of the world. It certainly sucked worse of a great many others who are still feeling the pain of Katrina et. al.I have a somewhat different take on the whole eavesdropping scandal. First of all I don't make international calls so I am not a target. Second, even if someone from NSA patched in on one of my phone conversations, I dare say that the dead lice would fall off of him or her just prior to him or her going comatose for all the mental stimulation that could be derived from anything that I would say.
In my past life I have worked with some of the intelligence community. On the whole they are a humorless, paranoid group. Maybe they need to be. Some of the things that I worked with troubled my sleep at times. It is good to know that there are some people that want the job of worrying about those things so that I don't have to. I got to the point that I no longer wanted to know just how close the world was to going to hell. I have since decided that I could guess what is going on and the end result is pretty-much the same.
I understand every one else's concerns for the invasion of their privacy. Still, be real; do you believe that you had any more privacy before 9/11/01?
I don't care whose political side you take, this is not the same country that it once was. I used to be proud, damned proud to be an American. I didn't need to be ashamed of what the people of this country stood for because we all stood for something unique. Even if it was all BS even back when I was a kid, I believed it. Despite the changes, I still would rather live here than anywhere else I have been. It is just that some of the things that have happened in the past two or three decades have embarassed me to the point that I am almost compelled to say, "Hey you get what you are dealt in life. It could be worse. They could have put me in charge of things."
It really is a different America, though. Some of it has to do with technology creating opportunities for everyone to become a voyeur or a spy. Some of it has to do with the lumbering, cumbersome giant called government and it's collective inability to enact legal boundaries upon the emerging technology, or to even agree on something as simple as whether to allow one another two minutes or three minutes to debate an issue. Some of the attempts to control technology are ludicrous in dumbfounding ways.
For example, Congress's attempt to ban spam emails and permit recipients a legally mandated option to be removed from any mailing list. The problem here is that the acts of the US Congress do not limit activities from servers that are based outside of the US.
Giving the legislators the benefit of doubt, they were trying to do something and I applaud their attempt but I think they missed the point that Bill Gates, Andy Grove and Steve Jobs have taught everyone: the only way to fight technology is with superior technology, or at least the illusion thereof.
Here’s to hoping that we solve a few problems in 2006:
1) Let us hope and pray that we get a lot of our boys and girls back home from the missions they have valiantly served in the middle east and other places. Whether they were appreciated either abroad or at home, being a member of the armed forces is a thankless job and we need to be grateful to everyone that has the courage and discipline to wear the uniform of our nation.
2) Say unto others what you would not be embarrassed to be made public – you never know who is listening. Apparently Big Brother doesn’t need to watch when he can listen.
3) If we all believe that the economy is better than we personally sense that it is, then everything will be okay. It’s a theory. As a theory it is at least as good as any of the economists who no one can understand anyway.
4) If you wonder where your tax dollars are going, remember to jot down the address where you mail your tax return. If you wonder who is spending your money call your congressperson, senator or other elected official to include the President who I vaguely remember promised to cut government spending and taxes. Introduce yourself. Now you know.
5) Maybe this is the year that the Cubs will win the World Series. I recall seeing Back to the Future Part II in the 1980’s and at one point there was a 3D billboard showing the World Series score: Miami (who didn’t even have a baseball team back then) and the Cubs were in the World Series. The crowd in the theater laughed. Hey, who knows? I am not one to argue with Steven Spielberg. This is the 21st Century. It could happen.
6) By the way, Steven, I have a book for you to read. As one of my few but greatly appreciated fans once put it – it is like The Matrix meets Lord of the Rings. Well, those aren’t my words. It is not as deep as Lord of the Rings but it is also not as thin as The Matrix. Moreover it is nothing like either one of them. So there!
7) I am thinking of changing my name to Sam and adopting the country. That way when you pay your taxes I can cash the checks. Then you can all blame me for everything, if you haven't done so already. Just a thought.
Be at peace in the new year.
As they say in China, Wo zhu ni Xian Nian Kuai le!
I wish you a Happy New Year!
E
posted by Unknown @ 7:23 PM
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