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SAYYING NO TO NOTEBOOK THIEVES

ttpn December 13, 2005

If you travel with your notebook, you’re always worried about thieves. Here’s how to stop computer kleptos with this bag of hardware and software tricks.

You may have all the data security tools you need – firewall, antivirus program, and antispyware protection. But what if a thief slips into your office or hotel room or breaks into the trunk of your car – and tries to walk away with your trusty computer?

Chapter Seventeen: FORTES FORTUNA ADIUVAT

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 12, 2005

The Jade Steps:
Chapter Seventeen: Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat

When they arrived at the city of Tlaxcala[1], there was an enormous welcoming party to greet the Spaniards. Different clans of Tlaxcalans dressed in differing colors, their maguey or henniquen cloaks all painted and embroidered. A contingent of priests with their burning copal performed fumigations, wearing long white hooded robes, their hair long and blood-encrusted, blood oozing from their ears, and with fingernails several inches long. The streets and rooftops were thronging with smiling Indians who showered the Spaniards with roses of varying hues.

When they reached the central plaza, King Xicotencatl took Cortez by the hand and led him to a palace, explaining, “This shall be your home in Tlaxcala for as long as you wish.” He assured Cortez that all his men, all the Totonacs and Xocotlans, and even the Mesheeka nobles, would be well housed. Upon his signal, hundreds of servants began streaming into the plaza bearing cooked turkeys, maize cakes, fruits and vegetables for all. The soldiers all agreed it was the best they had eaten since leaving Cuba.

With everyone so joyously happy, Cortez and Malinali retired to their quarters. They had not had any time together since Zautla – so they did not waste any time now, making love fiercely and quickly. Afterwards, noticing Malinali was staring into space, Cortez asked her what she was thinking about.

[1] September 18, 1519.

WIRELESS PIRATES

ttpn December 9, 2005

While setting up a wireless network is easier today than ever, it’s not the type of thing a computer novice is likely to try on his or her own as it requires at least some degree of technical awareness.

One could assume that people who have set up their own wireless networks would be among the users of anti-virus and other security programs. They are almost certainly among those who avoid opening e-mail attachments, who check downloads for viruses, and set up firewalls to keep out unwanted intruders.

But most people’s concerns over security stops at the entrance to their hard drive, it seems.

THE CIA IN DEEP CRISIS

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 8, 2005

On August 2nd, Dafna Linzer of the Washington Post reported that: "A major U.S. intelligence review has projected that Iran is about a decade away from manufacturing the key ingredient for a nuclear weapon, roughly doubling the previous estimate of five years."

On December 5th, the Jerusalem Post reported that Mohammed el Baradei, chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency, "confirmed Israel's assessment that Iran is only a few months away from creating an atomic bomb.

"My, how time flies. It hasn't seemed as if ten years have elapsed since last summer.

The CIA could be right, and Mossad and the IAEA could be wrong. But given the CIA's forecasting record -- it missed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Islamic revolution in Iran, the warning signs of 9/11, and Saddam's WMD -- that's not the way to bet.

Intelligence analysis isn't the only thing the CIA does sloppily.

THE KAZAKH TIGER IN CENTRAL ASIA

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 8, 2005

President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the leader of Kazakhstan since 1989, won the country's Dec. 4 presidential election hands down. The Central Election Commission reported he got 91 percent of the votes. Gallup and International Republican Institute exit polling says he got only 83.2 percent. Either way, no Orange Revolution there.

To put the Kazakh elections in perspective, it is important to note there were no democratic procedures there during the Russian czarist or the Soviet times. Seen in this light, the Kazakh elections were among most open in Central Asia.

What makes Kazakhstan unique are its real economic achievements, fueled by high oil prices. Kazakhstan today is as one of the more positive available examples of post-Soviet market development, including Western access to oil and gas resources, which Russia increasingly rejects.

THE PARANOIA ANTIDOTE

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 8, 2005

Given all the frantic efforts by so much of the media, and by so many folks with agendas, to freak you out with fear, I think you should look upon To The Point as The Paranoia Antidote.

In addition to this week’s article on how Iran’s nuclear threat may be of benefit to Israel (Shouldn’t the Palestinians Be Terrified of Iran?), let’s take three examples.

The first concerns the liberal paranoia of global warming, or more precisely man-made global warming, as in, it’s all our fault. It’s hilarious, of course, that COP-11, the assemblage of eco-goofballs attending the UN conference on “climate change” are freezing their tushes in Montreal this week in record cold while whining about the earth burning up. They would be enlightened by reading Solar Warming in To The Point in September.

Our second example concerns conservative paranoia over the phony terrorist threat of “EMP.” The “threat” is a cry of nuclear wolf, as originally discussed in The EMP Annoyance last June.

Our third example is the current paranoia over torture – specifically the torture of terrorists to extract information from them regarding planned terrorist acts. All of this can be avoided – all brutalizing torture can be avoided – with the techniques described in three To The Point articles:

D3 Terrorists (July 2005).
How To Get A Terrorist To Sing Like A Canary Without Torture (January 2005).
Interrogating Osama (October 2001).

SHOULDN’T THE PALESTINIANS BE TERRIFIED OF IRAN?

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 8, 2005

Israeli military intelligence now states that Iran may have the capacity to build a nuclear bomb by March, 2006. That’s less than four months away.

Thus the pressure for Israel to mount an attack on Iranian facilities is getting intense. Yet they are dispersed and dug in deep fortified subterranean tunnels. Sabotage, rather than a missile attack, seems the only option – but the frightening reality is that Mossad, the Israeli CIA, can’t pull it off.

Some sort of military assault, covert or overt, may be attempted anyway, but let’s also watch out for Sharon to deal a card from the bottom of the deck as well. This sure is a good time he thinks, for some Psy-Ops – directed at the Palestinians, and all Sunni Moslems worldwide.

It is a very good time to point out to them that there is no way to make a nuclear bomb that just kills Jews. There is no way to “wipe Israel off the map” in a Nuclear Armageddon without wiping out the Palestinians as well.

BENEDICT TO THE RESCUE

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 2, 2005

In a week where California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed a hyper-leftwing pro-abortion lesbian “married” to her “partner” as his chief of staff, and South Africa’s Constitutional Court ordered Parliament to legalize homosexual “marriage,” the moral sanity exhibited by the Catholic Church was a welcome relief.

On Wednesday, November 29, the Vatican issued an Instruction entitled, Concerning the Criteria of Vocational Discernment Regarding Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of their Admission to Seminaries and Holy Orders, which now has the authority of canon law.

Pope Benedict is taking a moral stand, standing firmly against the shrieking gales of limp-wristed liberalism. He is determined not only to rid his church of pederastic perverts, but is determined that his church is the moral rock of St. Peter that it is supposed to be.

FIFTH COLUMN DISTORTION

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 2, 2005

In his speech at the Naval Academy Wednesday outlining U.S. strategy in Iraq, President Bush paid tribute to Marine Corporal Jeffrey Starr, killed in a fire fight in Ar Ramadi April 30th. He was 22, on his third tour in Iraq.

A letter to his girlfriend was found on Starr's laptop computer:

"If you're reading this, then I've died in Iraq," Cpl. Starr wrote. "I don't regret going. Everybody dies but a few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we're in Iraq; it's not to me. I'm here helping these people so they can live the way we live, not to have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. Others have died for my freedom; now this is my mark."

In a mammoth article in October taking note of the 2,000th U.S. death in Iraq, the New York Times mentioned Cpl. Starr and his letter, but didn't quote the passages above. All the Times quoted from his letter was: "'I kind of predicted this,' Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. 'A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances.'"

The Times' omissions and distortions -- which are more the rule than the exception in news coverage of Iraq -- explain why so many Americans think we're losing a war we're plainly winning.

CASABLANCA ON THE POTOMAC

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 2, 2005

Here’s a difficult question: Would you spend $80 to make $1000?

OK – would you spend $80 million to make $1 billion? If you did so, would you then claim you were ripped off?

You would if you were Jack Abramoff’s Indian tribe clients.

Everyone in America has now heard of the “infamous super-lobbyist” Jack Abramoff. You’ve heard all about him, but let me assure you that you know very, very little about him – because the Democrat media wants it that way.

So let me tell you an illustrative story about him.

CROOKS IN CONGRESS AND CIA ROGUE WEASELS

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 2, 2005

One liberating silver lining to Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s pleading guilty to bribery charges is that being a Vietnam war hero is no longer a lifetime exemption from moral criticism.

When Jean Schmidt (R-OH) last Friday (Nov. 25) denounced John Murtha’s (D-PA) call for retreat from Iraq on the floor of Congress by reading a letter from a Marine asking her to “ ‘send Congressman Murtha a message: That cowards cut and run, Marines never do’,” she caused a riot that came close to being a fistfight between elephant and jackass Congresscritters.

Murtha, you see, is somehow invulnerable to criticism because he served 37 years in the Marines and won a number of medals in Vietnam. Howard Dean wasted no time in announcing that a billboard would be erected by Democrats in Portsmouth, Ohio (her disctrict headquarters), declaring: “Shame on You, Jean Schmidt: Stop Attacking Veterans.”

John Murtha is a legitimate war hero – unlike John Kerry. He won two real Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star in combat in Vietnam. He deserves our admiration and respect for his military service. Yet his being a war hero did not prevent him from becoming a moral coward – and a crook in Congress.

THE SAGE

Dennis Turner December 1, 2005

The Sage is a comprehensive dictionary/encyclopedia with a completely integrated dictionary and thesaurus that defines words, terms, concepts, historical events and even has an anagram decrypter - with nearly everything cross-referenced, allowing you to jump from word to concept with just one click.

What's in a word? Well, according to The Sage, a word is far more than the definition listed in the dictionary; it's a lemma, which means that it really is a "topic" or a chapter heading; for example, a word can be defined as a part of speech (noun, verb), a hypernym (part of a larger category), synonym, holonym, antonym (look them up), or other type.

Israel, for example, is a country (hypernym), a part of the Middle East (holonym), the home of Israelis (meronym) and it can be defined in dozens of other ways.

Chapter Sixteen: XICOTENCATL – YOUNG AND OLD

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 1, 2005

Chapter Sixteen: Xicotencatl – Young and Old

Malinali was stunned that Cortez was speaking this way to the Tlaxcalan elders. She knew how close the Spaniards were to giving up, how they feared another attack. But… but… the Tlaxcalans did not know this. They must have believed what she told the prisoners she had set free! Yet how did Cortez learn of this? She had not told him what she had done. It must be that Cortez was a genio with people as Bernal said.

For Cortez’s words had the desired effect on the Tlaxcalan chiefs. They bowed deeply, swore that Young Xicotencatl would come, said that all Tlaxcala will rejoice when the Malinche and his men will be at their capital, and left looking relieved and satisfied.

Even more relieved and satisfied were the Spaniards. With turkeys, maize cakes, cherries and other food in abundance, plus the promise of no more attacks, the camp was full of laughter – and no grumbling, not even from de Grado. Cortez was pleased, and made sure everyone saw he was – but he also made sure the patrols and scouts continued, day and night, to search for danger. He had no trust in this Young Xicotencatl.

COOLING ON CONDI

Dr. Jack Wheeler November 25, 2005

For some time now, I’ve been telling you that Condi Rice may replace Dick Cheney (who would step down for “health reasons”) as Bush’s Vice-President, putting her in the catbird seat for the GOP presidential nomination in ’08. I expect this to take place by summer 2006.

As I discussed last month in 44, her candidacy would be do more damage to the Democrat Party than Katrina did to the Gulf Coast. She is the only candidate the GOP can put up who could defeat Hillary.

(Try this on as a barf alert: John McCain as Hillary’s running mate. Denied the GOP nomination, he’ll bolt his party and team with Hil who’s got the Dem nomination sewed up. Yep, that’s the latest hot DC buzz.)

Now it’s time for the other shoe to drop.

TARGETING TEHRAN AND DAMASCUS

Michael Ledeen November 24, 2005

More than three years ago, prior to the liberation of Iraq, I lamented that our great national debate on the war against terrorism was the wrong debate, because it was:

“About using our irresistible military might against a single country in order to bring down its leader, when we should be talking about using all our political, moral, and military genius to support a vast democratic revolution to liberate the peoples of the Middle East from their tyrannical rulers. That is our real mission, the essence of the war in which we are engaged, and the proper subject of our national debate.”

The proper debate has still not been engaged, and the Bush Administration’s failure to lead it bespeaks a grave failure of strategic vision. The war was narrowly aimed against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.

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