Wait, there’s more. I had to take the bike into the shop and both the charger ($53) and the new battery ($157) are broken, and the back rim is attached to a special type of wheel ($164) with two gear assemblies. All told, if (did you catch that little word) I had to replace all damage with new parts, that’s approximately $425 damage to a $400 bicycle. I wonder if my little robotics club has a member who is jinxed?
A lady customer at the bakery, if I didn’t mention this already, is still having difficulties getting her car back from the repair shop. This is going on the third month and they keep telling her another few days. I’ll get the details, but it is time for her to call “Help Me Howard”. I called the garage on her behalf over a month ago and was told they were waiting for a part (a lie, since it does not take a month to get any part) and that the car would be ready the following Wednesday. The poor lady is so embarrassed, she didn’t speak up since.
Another pack of losers is Magnavox. They have a disgusting bunch of drop-outs working their “help” lines. Except, it’s some kind of survey line. They will tell you what is important. So I spent ten minutes telling off Loser Lance. It was fun. I insulted his intelligence, his race, his future, you name it. These people need reality checks because there mothers lied to them so badly, telling them they were special. 1-800-605-8610. Ask for Lance and tell him he’s a doosh. He answers the phone when he isn’t stealing bicycles.
I’m publishing here the chord progression to the Eel’s “Love of the Loveless”. For some reason, those bridge chords give mental diarrhea to countless guitarists. But I understand the problem: the chords are not a primitive I-IV-V pattern. The body of the song is C and F. That’s it. Then it goes to “All around you people walkin’” and the chords are Bb to Eb to Ab to Db to B (not Bb) to Db, and back to C. The bass notes are the roots of the chords in every case.
If I lost you, then you are either a lousy guitar player or not a musician, but I repeat myself. Sorry, folks, I just get sick and tired of guitar players who cannot figure out chords or try to fake them in my presence. Or they don’t know the difference between a tab, a chord chart and a cheat sheet.
Q: How many guitarists does it take to cover a Stevie Ray Vaughn tune?
A: All of them, evidently.
Q: How do you get a guitarist to play very quietly?
A: Give him some music to read.
And while I’m griping, you new generation of media commentators are really bad actors. You don’t review your lines, I heard a twenty-something pronouncing “Wehrmacht” as “Wur-mawsht”. Specifically, you can knock it off with that cliché that the V-1 had an inaccurate guidance system which “added to the terror”. Yeah? How so? Ah, you just like saying it because everybody before you did. And please, Goddard was nothing special. Like Tesla, he was just another flunky who never made it big. Now, von Brahn, there is a genius. No comparison. Goddard got 132 feet. Von Brahn hit the moon.
I don’t trust banks. I withdraw cash only from ATMs and always one of three amounts. If I need more, I split the transactions into those amounts. If you don’t use credit cards, it plain makes sense to utilize the fact that cash is anonymous. The “cents” figure on my bank account stayed the same from October 30, 2010 until June 15, 2013, when a bank fee changed it. But other than things like that, there is no personal information to be gleaned from my bank statements. There is a reason your bank account is one of the first things snooped into.
Using an ATM is generally a good idea, but you have to do it properly. Here is one of the newer “warnings” making the rounds. It concerns thermal imaging cameras, which are an amazing device. This shows the images of ATM keys just after the PIN number was pressed. Why, the secret code must be 4185.
Why yes, now that you ask, as a matter of fact, I can think of many crimes worse than suspected kiddie porn on a privately-owned hard drive. But that's the catch, you have to think about it where the authorities want you to think it is the worst crime ever. I can tell you of crimes far worse than looking at pictures on a computer.
Far worse are the high crimes of corrupt politicians and crooked lawyers, for instance, every one of them a repeat offender. These people can have you killed and get away with it. These are the serious crimes in our society. It seems underage sex, which has been going on since time immemorial, is the new bugbear being used to railroad any suspect when they can't get him any other way. It is up to parents to protect their children, not the state. The presence of so many law enforcement types willing to take over spells there is money at stake here. It’s not like these people really give a damn about anybody but themselves. It’s about the money, people, never forget that.
ADDENDUM
I’m informed the newest American police anti-freedom tactic when you won’t supply a password is to get a court order that you deliver an unencrypted copy of the hard drive. It makes you guilty of a different, more serious crime. How clever. That’s another reason to have a suicide password. Accidents happen. I would also argue that a copy is inadmissible if an original exists. What is that legal principle called? Best evidence?
I see the Fifth Amendment is one super-controversial subject. Folks, I’m not a lawyer, so make up your own minds. It seems clear to me which freedoms the law is supposed to protect, and seems unreasonable to me when the authorities overstep their powers to get convictions. I can’t see how refusing to assist someone who is trying to put you in jail is in itself a crime. Even if one is guilty as hell, you don’t have to lead them to the body. The onus of proof must rest totally on the accuser.
This is that vague area where “cooperation” is ill-defined. Some argue the Fifth only protects you from your own testimony, not from investigation. Even if they are right, that’s why we also have the Fourth. Questioning is a form of search. You need a warrant that specifies what is being looked for and the reason for looking. That’s why it is called a warrant.
I find there is not enough legal protection against what is called “plain view” crimes. Don’t mistakenly think this means any crime the police witness. They don’t need a warrant for that. Plain view is when the police discover a crime unrelated to the one specified on a warrant—or when the suspect has consented to a search for a specific item but not any other. My stance is simple. Evidence found without probable cause should not be admissible, and that is that. There are far too many instances of the police miraculously finding things.
Another analogy is the police obtaining a warrant to search your combination strongbox. A combination in your head is not the same as a key in your pocket. Some say you must open the box. I disagree. The warrant says they can search, not that you have to hold the door open for them. It is self-evident the police would not need a search warrant if they had enough evidence already, so it is in the accused's best interest not to provide it.
Thus, I side with the English kid who refused (in 2009) to give his password. The warrant states only that his property can be searched, not that he is deemed to have consented to that search or that he must actively point out any hiding places they may have overlooked. Even if he is guilty of a crime, he is under no obligation to in any way assist in his own prosecution. It is up to the police, not him, to enforce a warrant. If they lack that ability, it is just too bad for them because the alternative (of beating cooperation out of the lad) is unthinkable. Lesson one: never talk to the police about a crime, any crime.
The police naturally would have us believe that child porn is involved but I consider it entirely likely they could be after something totally unrelated and are trying to set the kid up as an example to scare others into compliance. Maybe the man’s a car thief, too, but it isn’t on the warrant. Is what I’m saying. He isn’t denying them access, just his password, and he has the right to remain silent. That is why it is called a password. As it stands, the police want to search his hard drive without stating what they are looking for. As Arnold would say, “Dis is boolshit.”
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