And not understood at all by people who bring Burmese pythons into Florida. The paper this also reported a Nile alligator recaptured after escaping from a “research facility”. That facility belongs on the Nile, peeps, or at least somewhere that doesn't resemble Africa. Like North Dakota, which doesn't look like anything except South Dakota. Those alligators are man-eaters. But Florida wants Forrest Gump to feel right at home. There was another item I found most interesting. The Euro union, which I understand needs to feel it is worthwhile and doing an important job, wants to ban the sale of American cheeses that have such names as Parmesan and feta. They cite these are misleading—because the American brands are so, well, cheesy.
Here we have the beginnings of an intractable argument. The USA is quite justified in turning around and saying it was the American system that made these cheeses as popular as they are. Before the Americans produced these products, they were nothings and the Euros only want them back now that we made them famous. I’m not taking sides on that issue, but my advice to the Euros is find something better to do with your time. Now.
Like I did last evening. You get one paragraph on it, one. A buddy of mine gets 4 out of 5 on the lotto, pays all his bills and still has $880 left over. It is well known that I can bring the women, but after that, you are on your own. So he calls me up and we head to “a bar on the beach”. Within ten minutes, all five available women are at our table and he’s trying to get all of them drunk. And not doing too badly at it. Except one of them is like 75 years old and she spots me. By not coming back from the can, I was able to escape with my “gerentological virginity”. Worst part was she was trying to pretend she was “that drunk” and she wasn’t. Nothing happened. End of this tale from the trailer court.
I’ll tell you what costed only ten bucks, though. A lady at the thrift taught me how to make my own short sleeve shirts. Here is about half-way through the process. This was a good move, because unlike the sewing classes I went to a few years back, she was not trying to sign me up for a seamstressing degree. Plus, I got a dozen nuggets of advice on needle sizes, knotting the thread, using a cutting template, and what pins to use. I also learned, and this is new to me, that it is better and faster to make these sleeves by hand. That is, to not use the sewing machine. Am I happy? You bet. She taught the parts I needed to know. But I wonder if I’ll ever be as fast as she was picking up those stitches.
Much later, it was a quiet day at home. Everything is caught up, I even oiled my drill bits. In an industrious mood, I knuckled down and learned the real bass line to Joe Cocker’s “Feelin’ Alright”. Another new style for me and rather technically amusing. Now I see why so many, ahem, expert bass players fumble and fake that song. It is actually a piano run. I don’t know why, but the store-bought bass players coming off today’s assembly lines don’t like to play those. And this is a particularly difficult pattern to do right. You have to use that sixth finger growing between your thumb and pointer. Piano players have them, but not guitarists.
Ha, you should walk a mile in my shoes. I know people who drink themselves broke on every night. But when it happens at bingo, it’s my fault. Double ha!
ADDENDUM
I delved deeper into the DOS database to discover I may have to re-learn to program in Assembler. I passed a course in this thirty years ago, but could not find anyone who could show me how to use it. Computer teachers are famous for that. You ask if they can show you how to use this language on your home computer to make something. The answer is no.
I was examining the file structure of the encrypted information. There’s a good question, why do I consider database as dangerous is the wrong hands? Well, it isn’t just me, the writers of the Constitution were also very touchy about personal freedoms. The police, for example, are probably the greatest abusers of databases. The Constitution says that police should only do surveillance on individual suspects when they have reasonable and probably cause. It does not empower anyone to do mass surveillance on the citizenry at large. Part of the problem is that it does not specifically forbid it either.
One of my most repeated warnings is to keep off the police lists. Why? For the same reasons I think databases should be restricted. Long ago, but still in my lifetime, people had the option to not talk to the police. Unless you were arrested, you could walk away. It took the police a long time to look up information about you, so they were prone to not do it unless absolutely necessary. But a hundred years of “creative law enforcement” has changed the ground rules.
The police have learned to get around the Constitutional guarantees of personal freedom. To plead the Fifth is now considered an admission of guilt rather than an exercise of your basic rights. The police once needed a warrant to search your house, or your papers, and such. How to get around that? Create lists. When the police have access to “public records”, they don’t need a warrant. The credit card company, the insurance agency, the local library, the school board, and another several hundred outfits have all the information the police need. Those who create the lists have zero obligation to protect you in any way, in fact, they probably think “helping the police” is a civic duty even when it invades your privacy.
When I worked at the phone company, they used to let the police come in without a warrant, and sit down at a user terminal. There was not even a record kept of what was looked at. Such people are not your friends. It may be their records, but it is your information and it was not given for the purpose of conducting a covert police investigation of your background. Most petty crimes are committed by ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, Even the worst conformist recognizes that people will behave differently and be more careful with personal information if they know the police are involved.
Another thing about a warrant is that it tipped you off the police were looking. And it gave you time get your story straight. Is this important? Yes, because it has been decades since merely telling the truth was enough to set you free. Hardly a week goes by without somebody being released from prison or death row. You'd think such things would tell people not to give out information to anybody who intends to keep it on file.
You can see how over time, the police have carefully manipulated public opinion on this topic. That is why I say it is best to just keep off as many lists as possible. For example, you won’t find my name on a single one of the databases listed above. And anyone who has ever been questioned knows what it is like to be grilled over matters that are essentially quite private and not the concern of the authorities. I even suggest that is why so many drivers run for it. They know that when they are pulled over, the cops will no longer stop at handing them a ticket for a broken tail light. I doubt there is one sane person who would argue the true purpose of getting a driver's license was so that the police could run your file without any obligation to have a good reason for it in advance.
Yet, the law in its purest form requires that.
