Jon's Blog

What happens when the lights go out?

On Tuesday, April 15, the lights went out all across Brazos County and much of the surrounding area. At around noon, something (no-one has bothered to tell us what, exactly) went wrong at the Gibbons Creek power plant in Carlos, just southeast of College Station, and a big chunk of power grid went black. The lights were off for about four hours, though nobody ever knew for sure when they'd come back on. Does a four-hour power outage sound like a cataclysmic event to you? Do you think your community could handle it? Consider what happened in the Bryan/College Station area:

• All the traffic lights were out. Traffic was unbelievably snarled, even when people seemed to recall their driver's ed instructions regarding the proper behavior at an uncontrolled intersection. In the main areas of town, it was faster to walk than to drive.
• Many schools and businesses, including Texas A&M University, sent everybody home after two hours of blackout (which didn't help the traffic at all).
• Grocery stores had trouble. Some closed their doors, some had employees leading shoppers around with flashlights. One or two stores had backup power and were able to remain fully operational. One or two, in an area with a population of roughly 150,000.
• Lowe's had a run on batteries, extension cords, and generators.
• Nobody could process electronic forms of payment; everything was basically cash-only. Cash registers didn't work; many places went to the "cigar box" method of cash handling.
• Local restaurants were forced to close after 30 minutes, regardless of whether or not they were serving perishable foods. Restaurants that refused to close were visited by health department officials who "encouraged" them to shut down immediately.
• The city requested that people use as little water as possible, for two reasons: one, the water towers weren't being refilled (by the electric pumps), and two, much of the sewer system is kept flowing via sewage lift stations (also driven by electric pumps).

Sure, the airport security scanners were fully functional out at Easterwood airport, and the 9-1-1 crew had their mobile emergency communications center online. Trouble is, most folks didn't give a rip about those wonderful taxpayer-funded services; for some reason, they were more concerned about those nagging little necessities like food and water, and getting home to their families to secure their houses and possessions in case of an extended crisis. When I realized the geographical extent of the outage, my first assumption was that it was a terrorist attack of some sort, and that power would possibly be out for a day or two, depending on how much infrastructure damage had occurred. I called my wife to be sure she knew how to load and fire my shotgun. She laughed at me; I don't think she realized just how serious I was. We live in a quiet neighborhood, but going without food, water, sewer, lights, and fuel for an extended period of time can do strange things to normally quiet people.

After 9/11 and all the ensuing official hullabaloo about "homeland security" and "emergency preparedness," it gives me pause when I consider the overwhelming unpreparedness of the community to deal with even a short power outage. No water, no sewer (or worse, backed-up sewers), no grocery stores, no gasoline (electric pumps!), no work, no school. If the lights hadn't come back on when they did, we'd have been very much in the dark, and very much in trouble. A four-hour power outage pushed this community to the edge. The "what ifs" are rather disconcerting.

Please remove your shoes...

I just received, from the resident Deputy Federal Security Director, a notification of a slight change in security procedures at Easterwood Airport in College Station:

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Please be aware that TSA has implemented new procedures related to the screening of footwear which will result in more passengers being asked to remove their shoes so they can be scanned by the x-ray.  We will also be adjusting the opening times for the checkpoint as necessary to accomodate the extra time necessary to screen passengers due to the new procedures.

The determination as to which passengers will be asked to remove their shoes will be made by the screener at the WTMD.  

FYI in case you are confronted by any passengers with questions or complaints because they were asked to remove their shoes.

Gary N. Wentrcek
Deputy Federal Security Director
Transportation Security Administration
U. S. Department of Homeland Security
Easterwood Airport (CLL)
1 McKenzie Terminal Blvd. Ste. 207
College Station, Texas   77845
(979) 691-7251 office
(979) 691-7252 fax
(979) 218-1049 cell
(888) 532-5802 pager
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I know Mr. Wentrcek. He's a good man, and I'm sure he's "just doing his job" like so many other well-meaning bureaucr--er, I mean, public servants. I have to wonder how many shoe bombs have been discovered thanks to this method of imposing yet another humiliation on those still foolish enough to fly the unfriendly skies in this country. Why don't they just cut to the chase and strip-search everyone, for crying out loud? I'm tempted to smuggle a pack of plastic knives on board my next flight (which might never happen, thankyouverymuch), just to embarass the TSA.

The fact of the matter is that the 9/11 hijackers didn't smuggle their own weapons aboard; they were placed there by ground crew or someone else who managed to violate the "secure" perimeter of the airport grounds...which is much easier to do than we might be led to believe by the TSA. They also didn't use firearms, but plastic weapons, which means two things: one, the scanners wouldn't have stopped them, and two, if even one person on board each aircraft had been armed with a firearm, 9/11 would not have happened. Does anyone doubt that, had he been armed, Todd Beamer would have dispatched the hijackers on his aircraft prior to making the call to his wife?

If you're tired of the taxpayer-funded airport scanning stations that are effective only in abusing and humiliating law-abiding citizens, then contact your representatives and demand that they explain to you why airline pilots are not armed, and what exactly it is about boarding an aircraft that justifies abridging the right of American citizens to keep and bear arms (it might interest you to know that the disarming of airline pilots and passengers is a relatively recent development). You might ask them why supposedly privately-owned air carriers are not permitted to set their own rules regarding on-board possession of firearms. Can they tell you why the government seems to distrust law-abiding citizens with guns? Inquiring minds want to know!

Me, I'm boycotting the airlines until they get their act together. And I'm going to be asking my representatives why they feel the need to use the money they pick from my pocket to bail out failing airlines...

"Senate Dividend Tax Cut Costs More Than Expected"

Check out the story on Fox News. Isn't it great how the Associated Press manages to spin the potential return of $70 billion to the people who earned it as a "cost"? Please tell me that Americans aren't dumb enough to buy that load of fertilizer!

Better still, the Democrats call it a "significant error" (Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota) and a "big mistake" (Sen. Max Baucus of Montana), while the ranking Republicans hem and haw and mutter under their breath. What are they all afraid of? Americans with money? Goodness gracious, we certainly wouldn't want those moronic American citizens to have use of their own money...after all, the government knows best how to spend it, don't they?

When will the constituents of these pickpockets and their ilk get off of their welfare state backsides and vote the bums out of office? Even the pols who talk about "smaller government" don't seem--for the most part--to be able to put our money where their mouth is. Call your Congressional representatives and ask them how they're cutting costs in order to help balance the federal budget. Ask them to justify, according to the powers delegated to them by the Constitution, the way they're spending your money. You might be shocked to learn just how irrrelevant the Constitution has become in the halls of government these days!

On Holiday

Just returned from a few days in Galveston, relaxing on the beach with my family. Last night, we caught Roman Holiday (the old movie starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn). I'd never seen it before. I recommend it.

Sure, it's entertaining, it's clean, and it's always fun to be amazed at how rail-thin Ms. Hepburn was. But the real meat of the thing is its message, which is really very simple: duty trumps pleasure. How many people absolutely refuse to do the very thing they were created to do, called to do, the thing that the moment demands, simply because it is an unpleasant task? We prefer rampant STDs over long-term personal health because maintaining a monogamous heterosexual marriage is difficult in this day and age. We'll turn in our firearms because standing up for our Creator-endowed rights might turn out to be uncomfortable (are the printing presses next?). We'll put our kids in government-run schools, drugging our young men with Ritalin and such, allowing them to be molded into politically-correct atheist illiterati, rather than exerting the considerable effort involved in "bucking the system" and giving them a proper classical education. God forbid they should actually have to bear the burden of conscious thought!

We need to arise from our government-education-inspired stupor, learn once again what it means to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Christ. We have a duty as freemen, as Christians, to exert every effort to educate the next generation about the Bible, the Declaration, the Constitution, and what their precepts really mean to us as Americans. Likewise, we have a duty to honor those same precepts with our lives, regardless of how unpleasant it may be at times.

Grass and Flowers

Many people quote Isaiah 40:8, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever," without realizing what they're really saying.

It doesn't take much contextual reading to get the gist of the passage. Isaiah is prophesying about the coming Messiah, the Comforter, the Glory of the Lord. God has told him to "clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness," and then God tells him to "call out." Isaiah wants to know what he should call out, and God apparently gives him an answer, for Isaiah immediately says, "All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever."

There are at least two lessons here. One is the old saw about taking bits of Scripture out of context and thus altering their meaning. Clearly, Isaiah 40:8 isn't talking about plants withering and fading; it's talking about men and their good works, both of which fall apart at the mere breath of God...forget about actually hearing a word from Him. And therein lies the second lesson: that all our best accomplishments, everything in which we take pride, is at best like a flower that fades and dies. God certainly appreciates our good works, comparing them to flowers after all, but the fact remains that it's not enough to get us anywhere close to Him, except ultimately to be wilted by His breath and crushed under His feet.

A man often gives a woman flowers in an attempt to please and/or placate her. And it generally works, but not because of the flowers; for, if he were to boast about the flowers themselves, he'd receive poor treatment indeed from that woman. No, the reason it works is that the flowers are a physical manifestation of the relationship that exists between the man and the woman. They are merely a pretty reminder, meaningless in and of themselves. Similarly, we have a relationship with God as our Creator, and our good works are like flowers we present to Him. The only "flowers" that will last, though, are the ones that come from a right relationship with God--not just as Creator, or even as Father, but as "Abba," Daddy--and, according to Scripture, there is only one Way into this relationship.

Isaiah goes on prophesying about the Holy One, the Arm of God, the Counselor, and his prophecies were fulfilled several hundred years later in the person and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. When Jesus says things like, "I am the door" (John 10:9), "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25), "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well" (John 14:6-7), He is simply showing us the way to get past our own selves, our own works, our own pride, and become true children of God. He is showing us the way into relationship with God. That is exactly why Jeremiah prophesied:

This is what the Lord says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

In both of the Corinthian epistles, Paul reminds the Church in Corinth of this "righteous boast" they have in Christ. So we ought to be reminded, by the harsh truth of Isaiah 40:8 and the glorious truth of the resurrected Christ, that Jesus really is the only One worthy of a boast.

Using a Gigabyte USB bracket on an AOpen motherboard

I inherited a PC with an AOpen AP59S motherboard, which has onboard USB, but there was no USB bracket. The good folks at A-Plus Computer Services in Bryan were kind enough to give me a Gigabyte USB bracket, so I set about making it work with the AOpen motherboard.

As it turns out (and not too surprisingly), a Gigabyte USB 2.0+ bracket (p/n 12CR1-1UB030-11) can be used, with some modifications, on an AOpen motherboard.

The standard AOpen pinout for an AP59S can be found in the AP59S hardware manual (see graphic below). Assuming that all AOpen motherboards use the same pinout, or at least the same pin names, you should be able to make the Gigabyte bracket work with virtually any of them.

The plastic pin housing on the Gigabyte part has several of the necessary holes blocked, so take a sharp-pointed pocketknife and open up the holes, then use the knife to carefully pull up on the plastic retaining tabs and pull the plugs out of the plastic housing so you can rearrange them. Optionally, you could discard the plastic housing altogether and plug the individual wires directly onto the motherboard, though of course this might cause trouble for someone else down the road. :)

The Gigabyte wire colors are red, black, green, and white. These correspond to the AOpen pin names as follows:
red: V
white: D-
green: D+
black: GND

That's the correct order for the pinout; put a red-white-green-black down each side of the connector. This will leave an empty pair of holes in the connector, below the black wires. The plug on the motherboard has one missing pin; that's the "bottom," and the empty holes in the connector should cover that.

Since the Gigabyte part has four USB ports, while the AP59S motherboard only offers two connections, you'll have to figure out some sort of aesthetically pleasing way to cover up the two unused ports to avoid user confusion. I used electrical tape.

Madder than a hornet!

According to various studies, statistics, and polls, about two-thirds of law enforcement officers support the idea that "the right of the people, to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Today, I ran into two officers who apparently come from the minority camp, who treated me as poorly as they could without actually placing me under arrest. The Brazos County Courthouse was upgraded to a high-security facility for the trial of the infamous "Jasper dragging" murderers (who got off easy with the death sentence, in my opinion), and for some reason, security has been high there ever since. It's one of the only places in town, other than the airport, with a metal detector at the door, and it has the "30.06" lettering, regarding concealed weapons, in huge lettering on all the doors. Anyway, these "officers" got me pretty steamed, so I wrote a letter. Maybe you can use it if you're ever exposed to this sort of treatment yourself.

Deputy Sheriff Mann,

This afternoon, I received incredibly poor treatment from the officers in charge of security at the main entrance of the County Courthouse. I am licensed to carry a concealed handgun, and I am very cautious about where I leave my weapon—I have a four-year-old son at home who is very interested in “daddy’s gun,” and that alone keeps me on my toes. I recently purchased a mini-SUV that does not (yet) offer a secure storage location for my firearm, so I have reservations about leaving my handgun in this vehicle. On the rare occasions when I have had business to conduct at the Courthouse, I have carried my handgun (concealed) up to the building, motioned for assistance from one of the officers on duty, and requested permission to check my handgun with them before entering the building. On at least two previous occasions, this was allowed, and there was no indication that this practice was against policy or illegal in any way. I am a law-abiding citizen, and my intention in doing this was purely out of a concern about leaving my handgun in an insecure location; had I any notion that I was creating a problem for the officers, legally or otherwise, I would not have done it.

Today, however, I went to the Courthouse at about 2:45 PM to file some paperwork with the County Clerk, and when I requested permission (from outside the building) to check my handgun, the officer on duty—a young man, dark haired, with a mustache—frowned and commanded, “Leave it in your car.” I did so, without asking any questions; I recognized that he was alone at the scanner, and assumed that he didn’t want to leave his post.

When I returned, the officer on duty began to berate me about bringing my handgun up to the building, telling me that “I should know better” and that I could lose my CHL because of it. I reminded him that I had been allowed to check my handgun in the past, and that I had assumed that he would rather have control over my handgun rather than having it out in the parking lot, and that I had broken no laws. None of this seemed to matter to him, and he continued to lecture me. When he finally had to turn his attention to another citizen who was entering the building, I presumed he was finished with me, and so I went on about my business with the County Clerk.

On my way out of the Courthouse, the officer had been joined by an older officer, who blocked my path and demanded to see my CHL. I produced it for him. He handed my CHL to the younger officer, and while the younger officer wrote down my information, the older officer began to berate me in much the same fashion as the other officer had earlier. I made the same comments to him that I had made to the other officer, but he was apparently determined to teach me a lesson of some sort (though I can hardly imagine what), and threatened to “call the licensing office” if he ever saw me at the front door again. By this time, I was fairly upset myself, having been treated like a criminal and berated by two men who doubtless know the law better than I, and thus knew that I had committed no crime! I informed the officer that he was welcome to contact the licensing office, because I had broken no law. He became even more agitated, and (thankfully) walked away, muttering under his breath. Once the other officer returned my CHL to me, I left the premises.

Mr. Mann, I truly do appreciate the unique challenges of the law enforcement profession; I count among my close friends members of almost every local law enforcement agency, including yours. I realize that the men guarding the Courthouse door are doing a difficult job that is most likely boring at best, perhaps even demeaning at times, and they’re doing their best to maintain a secure environment for the County personnel and citizenry within the building. However, this afternoon I was harassed and intimidated, seemingly at the personal whim of these officers. I can only assume that it has something to do with the fact that I carry a handgun. Good people can certainly differ in their opinions about an armed citizenry, but those opinions should never carry over into a law enforcement officer’s official duties. If I was breaking the law, then they were derelict in their duties for not arresting me. If I was not breaking the law, then they had no business treating me as they did. I hope and pray that no other citizen will ever have to experience the fear, humiliation, and agitation that I endured today at the hands of these officers.

Respectfully,
Jon

(Update: I received a very friendly letter of response from the Deputy Sheriff, informing me that he too was distressed by the treatment I had endured, that the Sheriff was a staunch defender of the Second Amendment, and that the officers at the main entrance were not, in fact, supposed to hold weapons for anyone. I still maintain that if the County is going to disarm people at the entrance, then they should provide some sort of accommodation for securing weapons, but that is another battle for another day. Feel free to take it up yourself.)

Kweisi Mfume: Liar and Thief

http://www.naacp.org/news/releases/gunlobby04303.shtml

"Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), testified today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York that the proliferation of handguns that kills thousands of African Americans, particularly young people, is partly 'the fault of the government for not enforcing existing laws and the fault of the gun industry for not self regulating the sale and distribution of handguns.'"

Which, of course, is absurd, for three reasons.

First, "the proliferation of handguns" has nothing to do with the murder of a black person. Many black people are killed with pipes, knives, and automobiles, but we'll never hear Mr. Mfume talking about the proliferation of those dangerous objects. Second, that "particularly young people" bit is only supportable by counting 16-to-24-year-olds involved in committing crimes as "young people." In fact, the rate of firearms-related deaths among American children under the age of 15 is at its lowest level in decades (check the stats for yourself at the CDC). Third, the sale and distribution of handguns, and firearms in general, is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world. Surely Mr. Mfume, with his broad access to highly-qualified lawyers, is not ignorant of the myriad federal and state laws that regulate all aspects of the firearms industry. I can only conclude, therefore, that the man is a liar and a thief, using subversion to steal the civil liberties of the very people he claims to represent, not to mention the rest of us Americans.

This is well worth the nineteen bucks.

http://www.campaigncontribution.com/alerts/filibuster/

We cannot underestimate the importance of this issue.

If the current "fake filibuster" policy remains intact, then any leftist senator can block the confirmation of any judge (or any other of the President's appointees, for that matter). By so controlling the confirmation process, that senator can "stack the deck" in the judicial branch against constitutional constructionists (you know, the folks who take the Constitution at its word when it says things like, "Congress shall pass no law..." and, "...shall not be infringed").

Once the constructionists are outnumbered in the Supreme Court (which is, arguably, already the case), then we can kiss the Constitution goodbye, because Congress lacks the spine to impeach anybody for anything, even when they're commanded by the Constitution to do it. Imagine, if you will, a Supreme Court that hands down verdicts like those oozing from the current Ninth Circuit. If you think that sounds far-fetched, think again.

So, this "fake filibuster" issue, which is being used by the leftists to control judicial confirmations, MUST be stopped. The long-term health of our Republic hangs in the balance. If we do not stop it now, then I predict that we will, at some point in the not-too-distant future, be forced to either surrender our lives to the will of a leftist, activist, tyrannical judiciary, or take up arms against it.

It won't matter whether you're Democrat, Republican, or Libertarian; it won't matter whether you're conservative, liberal, or moderate: you will no longer be a free citizen protected from governmental tyranny by the Constitution. You will be a slave to the State, and you will be forced to shut up, give up, lie down, and bow down to it, lest someone like Janet Reno send her thugs through your door to "clean house" with lead and flame (recall Waco, Ruby Ridge, and Elian). If you think it can't happen here, then you need to bone up on both history and current events.

Kung-Log is the king of blog editors.

If you mantain even just one blog, and you're running Mac OS X, then it behooves you to visit kung-foo.tv and download Kung-Log. It makes blogging as easy as typing email. I hear that w.blogger is a good blogger for Windows, though I haven't tried it myself; I'd be interested to know what you think is the best Windows blogger.

It works!

Well, between watching cartoons with my son, fixing dinner, and getting him into the bath, it took a couple hours to get MySQL and MovableType up and running on my server. Woo hoo!

First, be sure you're running Mac OS X Server 10.2.x. Otherwise, these instructions won't help you. :)

Then, get MySQL running.

Download the latest MovableType.

To setup MySQL for MovableType, do the following (after getting MySQL running per the Apple KB article above):

# mysql --user=root --password=root_mysql_password
> create database mtdb
> grant all privileges on mtdb.* to mt@localhost
> identified by 'mt_password' with grant option;
> quit

Finally, follow the instructions at:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030210052253511.

Note that any directory to which MT will be writing a file needs to either have 777 permissions, or have owner and/or group of "www" with write permission.