New Economic Order

It occurs to me that one of the reasons for the expansion of our internal security apparatus is because the government is trying to create more jobs for people. Our former great industrial base has been decimated. The car industry has been exported to the Far East, agriculture has been mechanized, manual labor jobs have been appropriated by the Mexicans. The only things we have left are the military-industrial complex, which is still going great guns, Medicare which keeps a ten million people busy taking care of a hundred million zombies, and the service industry, which keeps a hundred million people in virtual slavery.
    Over a million people in the USA have some kind of security clearance, and as Snowden showed us, they are making "good money". Hell, they are part of the 1% that rule the world.

It says "tanker" on the side, but that's just a cover for its role in the Sooper-Secret Omega Agency.

*Numbers are WAGS (Wild Ass GuesseS), not supported by research from any fancy pants Ivy League school, or even a politically motivated pole, and are therefor dead accurate.

Intel is Expanding

I don't know what they are up to this time, but there is a whole forest of cranes over at the Ronler Acre's complex. I think it is something different than last time.

Sebring ABS Connector

Younger son and I started our second attempt to repair our Chrysler Sebring today. We made good progress with the preliminaries, removing the wheels, the plastic fender liners and disconnecting cables and hoses until we got to the ABS (Anti-Lock Braking System) controller. Going to try using a slightly different procedure this time. Instead of disconnecting it from the frame and the brake lines from the front wheels, we are going to leave it bolted to the front subframe member and instead disconnect it from the wiring harness and the master cylinder. Should be simpler. I hope.
    Everything was fine until it came time to disconnect it from the wiring harness. Great big black, plastic connector, with none of the locks we have seen on all the other cables. Don't even try pulling on it if you can't find the lock, you'll just end up breaking it and having to jury rig some kind of lock to keep it plugged in when you finally put it back together. Finally resort to Google and find a page on Autozone that includes this little tidbit:

15. Disconnect the 25-way wiring harness connector from the CAB using the following procedure. Grasp the lock on the 25-way connector and pull it out from the connector as far as possible. This will unlock and raise the 25-way connector out of the socket on the CAB.

Yeah, okay, sure. What lock? Look at the top. Look at the bottom. Hmmm. What's this bit sticking up on top? Hoy! There is a seam between it and the rest of the connector, right at the top of the body of the connector. Could this be the lock? Well, let's pull on it and find out. Pull, tug, grunt, yank: nothing. Get my little bitty claw hammer, stick the claw in the hole in the side and pry. She moves! Connector still not loose, pry some more, and the connector comes free, just like magic.

Unplugged connector with lock engaged. Socket is at lower right in picture.

Connector with lock released.

When I started this post I tried to find the page that contained the clue, but Google showed nothing from Autozone. I had to go back to the computer I used to find it originally and use that browser's history to locate it. I must have used a slightly different search string.

The NSA and Privacy

E. B. Misfit has put up a fine new post about the on-going consternation over the NSA.

As I sit in my basement and type away, I think I don't have anything to worry about. I don't say anything (very) inflamatory, much less seditious, so the guys from the alphabet soup jungle (FBI, NSA, CIA, etc.) wouldn't be interested in anything I say. But that's not the problem.

The problem is not that the government could use incriminating evidence to track down terrorists. Most everybody is fine with that.

The problem is that a bad apple somewhere in the government could use some of this mass of innocently collected information to target someone who has done nothing wrong, but for some reason has attracted this bad apple's attention, and either through vindictiveness, outrage, or simply boredom, has decided to bring the power of the federal government to bear on this one individual.

The power of the government is tremendous. It needs to be carefully controlled. Giving the government unfettered access to private communications is like giving them a surfeit of ammunition, and as every gunner knows, when you have more ammo than you need, you tend to shoot more. I mean, that's what ammo's for, isn't it?

Tian Tan Buddha

Syaffolee has posted a bunch of cool photos of Hong Kong. I recognized this character from previous virtual trips. Thought I would post a satellite view from Google Maps, I mean it's big enough you can see it from outer space, but the statue is obscured by clouds. Grrrr. Could it be the NRO is in league with the Hong Kong Tourist office? It must be true, my conspiracy spider sense is tingling.

Unintended Consequences

 A couple of weeks ago I made some crack about people who talk about what other people say as opposed to doing actual work with things. Since then I have noticed a sharp drop in the amount and quality of snark emanating from View From The Porch. I miss the old fire breathing Tam. I sure hope that's not my fault. No, it's probably not. I only wish I had that much influence.

Pic of the Minute

Banksy strikes again.

Stolen entire from Vagabondish, via Roberta X. You do know who Banksy is, don't you?