Reinke Faces Life

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese379.html

The Republican War
by Charley Reese

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The Iraqis are killing us on the cheap with secondhand AK-47s, rifle grenades and homemade bombs created out of old artillery shells. We are using the most expensive weapons in the world, wielded by the most expensive army in the world, to kill them by the small handful. I don’t know what the insurgency has cost, but the Republican War has cost us half a trillion dollars, and all we have to show for it are 3,600 graves, several thousand wounded, a civil war and a corrupt, ineffective civilian government. The Iraqi supply line stretches around the corner; ours stretches 7,000 miles. The Iraqis know what their mission is; our soldiers don’t have the foggiest notion of why they are still there.

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Leave it to an old tank driver to put it bluntly.

I can’t think of a better way to say it.

Get the troops home. Now!

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RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Thursday 19 July 2007 Volume 24 : Issue 74

ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
Peter G. Neumann, moderator, chmn ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy

***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. *****
This issue is archived at <http://www.risks.org> as
<http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/24.74.html>
The current issue can be found at
<http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt>

{Extraneous Deleted}

Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:32:42 -0400
From: Fred Reinke <reinkefj@reinke.cc>
Subject: “Microsoft Copy Protection Cracked Again” and who’s surprised?

{Begin Quoting an AP story}

Jessica Mintz, AP, 17 Jul 2007
Microsoft Copy Protection Cracked Again
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=2007-07-17_D8QEFI3O1
<http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=2007-07-17_D8QEFI3O1&show_article=1&cat=breaking> &show_article=1&cat=breaking

Microsoft Corp. is once again on the defensive against hackers after the
launch of a new program that gives average PC users tools to unlock
copy-protected digital music and movies.

The latest version of the FairUse4M program, which can crack Microsoft’s
digital rights management system for Windows Media audio and video files,
was published online late Friday. In the past year, Microsoft plugged
holes exploited by two earlier versions of the program and filed a federal
lawsuit against its anonymous authors. Microsoft dropped the lawsuit after
failing to identify them.

The third version of FairUse4M has a simple drag-and-drop interface. PC
users can turn the protected music files they bought online-either a la
carte or as part of a subscription service like Napster-and turn them into
DRM-free tunes that can be copied and shared at will, or turned into MP3
files that can play on any type of digital music player.

{End Quoting an AP story}

Like an arms race, the DRM folks are spending a lot of cycles on a failing
paradigm.

Like putting lipstick on the proverbial pig, it annoys their paying
customers and is pretty ugly! Some of my biggest irritations, in my
computing career, have been at the hands of “copy protection”. Couple that
with bad, or non-existent, support and you have the seeds of a revolt.

I now don’t buy content online — music or other kinds — if it has copy
protection. I have a lot of expensive 8 tracks, cassettes, and cds of
“content” that are unusable. Add to that “software”, which has stopped
working, stopped being supported, or otherwise orphaned.

My most recent experience was with MusicMatch JukeBox being acquired by
Yahoo and forced to “upgrade”. This was one of my last purchases, excuse me
“licensing” — what “barbara streisand”!! — before my new policy of “no
more”.

“No more” locked content. “No more” buying software, excuse me licensing it,
from vendors who are one step below used car salesmen. “No more” operating
systems that require “activation” and have “self-help” provisions.

I look to the open source software makers and happily “donate” to their
projects.

I’m calling out the content makers, “software” licensors, and the entire
Microsoft empire as the hucksters they are. At least the snake oil sales men
of yesteryear didn’t try and make you “license” the bottle! A plague on all
their houses.

Imagine how I’ll be when I get old and crotchety!

Ferdinand J. Reinke, Kendall Park, NJ 08824 http://www.reinke.cc/
blog http://www.reinkefaceslife.com/ http://www.reinkefaceslife.com/

——————————

{Extraneous Deleted}

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Twice in one year! Maybe I’m getting older and wiser. :-) Either that or PGN is getting lax?

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What a joy, relatives, in-laws actually have come to visit. They’re big gooferment proponents. They work for the gooferment. So how can the gooferment be bad? They listen to me rant and rave. But, at dinner, with a slew of in-laws, it was amusing to hear them all talk about property taxes. One of the local in-laws pulled out her property tax “statement”, and reported that 63% of the property taxes went to “education”. And, from there the fun began. I got my digs in often about taxes being theft. It was great to see all the statists squabble about high taxes being whose fault. I, of course, mentioned that they should imagine what they could buy if they could keep their own money. People can’t believe that we ever had no taxes. Wow! What fun.

I have to remember the lipstick on the pig. It doesn’t make the pig any prettier and annoys the pig.

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http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0707/North_to_Alaska.html

July 18, 2007
North to Alaska

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Rep. Don Young attacked his fellow Republicans on the House floor Wednesday, as he defended education funds allocated to his home-state of Alaska.

“You want my money, my money,” Young stridently declared before warning conservatives that, “Those who bite me will be bitten back.”

Young took extreme exception to an amendment by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to strike money in a spending bill for native Alaskan and Hawaiian educational programs.

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I think this sums it all up. It’s the politician’s money; not yours!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCNqgLkAx0g

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Yay, let’s all have equal treatment under the government! What would that be like?

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The way America is supposed to be?

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer160.html

Why They Won’t Impeach
by Butler Shaffer

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The interests of Democratic and Republican officials alike are best served by the maximization of political power. If “government” is defined as an agency enjoying a monopoly on the lawful use of force within a given territory, what politically ambitious person would not want to enjoy as much of that power as he or she can muster? And since such a purpose not only suits the interests of the ruling establishment, but defines its existence, a symbiotic relationship between these two groups is easily fashioned.

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It just exposes the sham of the “two party system”. It’s a system all right. A scam. A racket. Tweedle dum and Tweedle dee.

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http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2007/07/governance-as-theatre.html

Monday, July 16, 2007
Governance as Theatre

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I have to congratulate Senator Harry Reid for having the common sense and the uncommon gumption of forcing an actual filibuster on the Reed-Levin amendment on a phased withdrawal of most combat formations from Iraq by April of 2008. The procedure that Sen. Reid will use will require sixty votes to end debate and if the debate is not ended, then at least thirty more hours of debate before another cloture attempt can be made.

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Interesting for the D’s to not realize that they can use this lever. Then, when the elections come, short. Silly, the Constitution vest considerable power in the minority.

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http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/
2007/07/11/illegal_immigration

http://tinyurl.com/ywxo3u

Illegal Immigration
By Walter E. Williams
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

In this I’m going to try interspersing my comments in the article.

WW> I’d like to raise some ordinary non-rocket-science questions to the pro-amnesty crowd, many of whom are my libertarian friends.
WW>
WW> Do people, anywhere in the world, have a right to enter the United States irrespective of our laws pertaining to immigration?

No, “right” implies that I have a duty. But, it has nothing to do with “laws”.

WW> If your answer is “no,” one does not have a right to enter the U.S. irrespective of our laws, what does that make a person who does so?

Just a person. Maybe they are just lost.

WW>I was summoned for jury duty some years ago, and during voir dire, the attorney asked me whether I could obey the judge’s instructions.

Jury tampering by the system to ensure it gets the verdicts it wants.

WW>Needless to say, I was dismissed from jury duty.

Lucky you weren’t held in contempt! Probably poisoned the whole pool. Good job!

WW>While our immigration laws are overly cumbersome and in urgent need of streamlining, they do not violate human rights and should be obeyed.

Your immigration laws are cruel, immoral, ineffective and inefficient. They clearly are at odds with the founding documents. And, seek to empower and enhance the welfare state.

WW>we can’t prevent every rape and murder

Maybe if we got rid of all the “victimless crime laws” and shrink the gooferment down to Constitutional size, then maybe we could.

WW>People who are here illegally should be denied access to any social service such as Medicaid, public education and food assistance programs.

I’d suggest we end the dole for EVERYONE! It’s only provided by the theft from productive people.

WW>The United States is a nation of immigrants from all over the world.

So, let’s go back to the immigration rules that cherished the Statue of Liberty.

WW>Because there was no welfare state, we were guaranteed that they’d work as opposed to living off the rest of us.

Bingo!

WW>They’ve announced that they seek to take back parts of the U.S. that were formerly Mexico.

Local determination. Peace. Mutual respect. As recognized by the Constitution, and the other great document of civilization.

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Maybe I’m just irritable, but I find this and it’s tone “arrogant”. “You may have heard”? If “markets are a conversation”, these folks are having a monologue. Needless to say, communications like this, reinforce my commitment to Open Source Software whenever and where ever possible. And, are there other kinds of users? Other than “business” that is. Maybe it’s me. Adios, I’m not coming along.

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From: Ceryph [mailto:do_not_reply@ceryph.com]
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 2:50 PM
To: Ferdinand Reinke
Subject: CmapTools – IHMC discontinues support of business users

You received this email because you are a registered user of IHMC’s CmapTools concept mapping software. If this email reached you in error, please remove yourself from our user list.

As you may have heard, IHMC will no longer provide CmapTools software, upgrades, bug fixes and technical support to business users. See IHMC’s new policy for details.

IHMC and Ceryph have partnered to ensure that business users of CmapTools continue to have access to world-class technical support. Ceryph created a commercial version of CmapTools called “Ceryph Insight” to facilitate this support. Our Insight customers will receive technical support and access to future upgrades through Ceryph.

Visit us at www.ceryph.com or contact sales@ceryph.com to learn more about Insight.

We look forward to serving you.

Bryan Clark
CEO
Ceryph
bryan.clark@ceryph.com
www.ceryph.com

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http://blog.lewrockwell.com/lewrw/archives/014090.html

July 13, 2007
The Democrats’ Charade
Posted by James Ostrowski at July 13, 2007 10:28 AM

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Let’s be clear on this. The Democrats have the unilateral power to end the war. Don’t believe any of the malarkey such as this article in the Washington Post that suggests they need enough votes to override a veto to end the war. That’s what they want us to think.

The Democrats were elected, not because of their sicko domestic polices, but because people thought they would end the war. Now that they can, they won’t because they don’t want to be blamed for “losing” a war that was lost before it began. That’s right, they continue to fund a war that is killing thousands so they will win future elections and stay in power so they can act like monsters in the future too.

All they need to do is stop the funding, by majority vote, in either house.

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Even Dick Morris agrees. And, he throws in that many R’s will join them.

But the D’s want to get a lock on power and so are content to pretend that they are helpless.

Yeah, right. It’s all a shell game between two side of the same coin.

A pox on them all!

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