3958 Urgent! Please carefully consider this and join in the effort.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

This is Article 5 of the U.S. Constitution:

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

There's a movement afoot for an amendment setting congressional term limits - specifically 12 years.  There's no way on earth members of Congress will agree to do away with their own lucrative power trip.  It has to be started in the state legislatures, and there will likely be resistance there, too, since they might be afraid of the same happening to them, if it hasn't already.

[I believe there are currently 15 states with term limits.  In two other states, term limits had been passed, then were rescinded by subsequent legislatures (not surprising -- I'm just surprised there weren't more) and one was overturned by the courts.  If you are interested, here's a list of states and their term limit status: http://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/chart-of-term-limits-states.aspx.]

So, people are trying to generate a popular petition movement.  "WE want it, and we want it now!"  You sign the petition and it will be presented to the legislature of your state.  Here's the text of the proposed amendment,  http://www.termlimitsforuscongress.com/e-petition.html, and the online petition itself.  "Signing" consists of filling it out and sending it in online.

I don't have to argue why this is a good idea.  The chances of it passing anywhere in our lifetimes is slim.  But we must make our desires known or the chances are zero.

I urge you to "sign".  Pass the links on to everyone you know.  It does require your personal information, like name, address, email address, but even I have no fear.  I'm even making a donation.

Forward it to everyone you know.  But, SIGN ONLY ONE petition, otherwise your petition might be thrown out.

The petition is at

http://www.termlimitsforuscongress.com/e-petition.html.

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Almost forgot - there's a main Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TermLimitsforUSCongress, and some have been set up for particular states - just search in Facebook for "term limits for us congress" and your state name.

3957 Midnight Serenade,

Thursday, June 12, 2014

There's a bird out back who sings all night, or at least until 3 am, which is the latest I've been awake to hear him.

The song is beautiful, so clear and ringing.  You can listen for an hour and not hear the same run twice, so I think it's a mockingbird.

I got the idea to record him on video a few nights ago even if we can't see anything, but since then there's been rain or wind or both, so even though he's still singing, I don't think it would record well.  The first clear quiet night, I'll try, and then we will have a guest appearance on the blog.

I can't help but wonder --- when does he sleep?

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Feedly has been down all day yesterday, up for a short time last night and down again today.  That's where I get the feeds for all the sites I follow, so I am in addiction withdrawal.

Some nasty group has launched a distributed denial of service (DDoS - that's when attackers use hijacked systems or robots to overload a site with traffic so nobody else can use it), and are holding it for ransom.

Several sites and services have been hit with DDoS attacks lately and are fighting back rather than pay the ransom.  If you do pay the ransom, they will never stop.  You can fight against viruses that take over systems and use them as robots to launch an attack, that's the old way to launch a DDoS, but now there are actually servers you can rent to do the job, and if DDoS ever becomes profitable, you may as well take the internet out to the back forty and shoot it.

How does the ransom get paid, anyway?  Do you fill a file with bitcoins and leave it in the cloud somewhere?

Law enforcement is working on it.  This is probably the worst vulnerability of the internet, the easiest and surest way to take ANY sites down, and the least preventable. 
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3956 Yeah. Go Jon.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Do love me some Jon Stewart.  A 5 minute clip that felt much too short:
https://screen.yahoo.com/the-daily-show/operation-deserter-storm-home-where-040000233.html

Do these people have any idea how nasty they sound?  Nasty, stupid, small-town gossiping self-serving rabble-rousers, and then they wonder why people are killing each other?

Facts? We don't need no freakin' facts!  You just listen up here to what I want you to think!

Aren't these the people who are supposed to be examples to us of how to deal with each other?  Is it any wonder social media is a snake pit?
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3955 Hair

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

I took this photo back in late May.  I don't think I posted it here yet.

Growing it out again.  It took a long time because it was so short on top, but I kept trimming the bottom and and growing the top through all those painful yuck periods, and it's finally getting there.

I hated my hair short.  I got it cut because some influential people told me I'd look better with it short.  I hate hate hated it short.  I've had longish hair all my life, and I just don't feel like me with it short.  Even bangs.  I don't like bangs on me.  When it gets long enough on the sides I'll probably usually tie it back, but at least I know it's ME!  Never short again, no matter how "mature" I get.

I think people were trying to make me look more sophisticated.  Surprise -- I make no pretension to sophistication, ever.  Get used to it. 
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3954 What it's like being married to a programmer

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Dear, could you go to the store for me?
Yeah, okay.  What do you need?
A loaf of bread.  Oh, and if they have brown eggs, get a dozen.

A half hour later, he returns with a dozen loaves of bread.
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3953 Anyone else confused?

Sunday, June 8, 2014

I'm confused.

The kid walked off the base.  Most military folks consider him a deserter.  Therefore they are furious that five prisoners were released to get him back, ESPECIALLY since so many good men were killed attempting to search for him and bring him back when he first walked away.  That's what they keep throwing out, anyway.

Now, let me get this straight:  Military folks think getting him back is NOT worth the release of five prisoners, but getting him back WAS worth the deaths of multiple fellow soldiers.

Huh?

I don't understand.

People keep describing the released prisoners as "dangerous terrorists".  Note that they have been rotting in Gitmo precisely because we don't have enough evidence against those five to go to trial and win.  In other words, because we can't prove them guilty in a trial, we declared them guilty without a trial?  Convenient.  And scary.  Imagine if your local cops and prosecutor could do that.

People are continuing the "dangerous" descriptor without ever having looked at how and why they ended up in Gitmo.  Salon.com has a story on them, "The worst Bowe Bergdahl trutherism, debunked - John McCain says released Gitmo prisoners are historically dangerous. Records tell a different story".   For the important part, scan down to point number 3.

If these guys are now "dangerous terrorists", we MADE them so!  And I wouldn't blame them a bit.

As I am writing this, one of those Sunday morning political talk shows is on TV in the background, and some pompous fathead just equated the five prisoners to five Nazi generals.

Sometimes I hate people.
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