This morning was a little different for me, owing to an event I’m attending tonight. I didn’t head to the computer as soon as I fired up the coffee maker, and that’s why I missed the news this morning of an 8.8 scale earthquake in Chile early this morning.
I believe that’s stronger than the one in Haiti so you’ve got to think the devastation is going to be that much worse. However, Chile’s position along the coast of South America added the possibility of tsunamis in the Pacific. I’m seeing stories of tsunami alerts in Hawaii and evacuation orders for all coastal areas on all of the Hawaiian islands. Based on projections, a tsunami generated by the earthquake will impact Honolulu, Oahu at 4:19 pm eastern time (11:19 am local).
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the citizens of Chile and to those in Hawaii and elsewhere still in danger’s path.
Bearing Drift has a terrific guest post up by Duront Walton, Executive Director of the Virginia Telecommunications Industry Association. Mr. Walton addresses an ongoing attempt to keep a Tim Kaine-proposed tax hike on phone services in Virginia (an increase in the tax collected for 911 call center funding, specifically) to funnel funds into a non-related program.
This is a union bill that firefighters have pushed each year to increase state contributions to the “line of duty fund.” The fund, in and of itself, is a very worthy project that makes payments to the families of first responders who are killed or injured in the line of duty. But those covered under the Line of Duty statute include everyone from game wardens to state hazmat teams to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. All of these are noble and important offices, but there is hardly a connection between their job and a 911 communications infrastructure.
No one takes issue with the merits of the fund. Senator Fred Quayle (R-Chesapeake) has introduced a bill that adds this tax onto home security systems each of the past four years. It’s failed every year because the General Assembly didn’t feel there was enough of a nexus between security systems and the fund to link the tax. Quayle refused to carry the bill again for a 5th year. As a tip of the hat to his union buddies, Governor Kaine included the tax in his budget, placed it on all Virginians who have a home or cell phone, and then promptly left town.
The House of Delegates stripped the language out of their proposed budget and killed several bills that proposed to implement this through a change in statute. The Virginia Senate, on the other hand, left it in their budget.
Read the whole, as they say. It’s illuminating and it’s important. It addresses a specific issue but touches on a wider concept: transparency and accountability in our government operations. Taxes, most of all, should be quite up-front about what they are collecting funds for. This is how government expands and creeps into areas no one ever thought it should. As Mr. Walton says, there’s nothing wrong with the fund in question and it addresses a noble purpose. But if it’s something we Virginians think our government should be doing, then let’s do so in the open, not as some back-door parasitic event. I applaud the House removing this from the budget and I hope the Senate can step up to the same commitment to honesty.
Candace Strother is a strong supporter of Virginians’ 2nd Amendment rights. You likely knew that if you know her at all. But did you know she was a competition pistol marksman and appeared in an ad for local gun range Blue Ridge Arsenal?
Come out and cast your vote for Candace Strother for LCRC Chairman on 6 March 2010 at Belmont Ridge Middle School from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm!
The LCRC Party Canvass is a week from this Saturday, to be held 6 March 2010 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at Belmont Ridge Middle School. See the LCRC web site for details.
I’ve written about Candace before and why I think you should cast your vote for her. I’ve also mentioned the choice facing we Loudoun Republicans now. This isn’t about good guys and bad guys, it’s not about conservative values. We’re blessed this year with 2 candidates who are both good guys, who are both strong supporters of conservative values. It’s about the skills, experience, and leadership to build on the momentum we’ve attained in the past year under Glen Caroline’s stellar leadership and bringing it to bear in November. Candace Strother has those skills, has that experience, and can lead us to victory in 2010 and beyond.
Cast your vote for Candace Strother for LCRC Chairman.
IN the last couple of days a case has been reported wherein a Philadelphia school district is being sued by the family of one of its students for allegedly violating the privacy of the family in their home. The school district issues laptop computers to some of the students yet neglected to advise the families that the school could remotely activate the camera in the laptop at any time. From the Fox News story on the matter:
Blake Robbins and his 18-year-old sister both attend Harriton High School and were among the 2,300 students in the district to receive the Apple laptops. All students and their parents had to sign a “memorandum of understanding” to take the laptops home with wording that explained the rules and regulations that came along with the computers. The paperwork did not include the disclosure that the school district had the ability to remotely activate the embedded webcams at any time, without student’s permission.
Last November, Blake Robbins was called to the office by the vice principal to talk about what she called his “improper behavior” at home. Vice Principal Lindy Matsko allegedly cited as evidence a photograph taken with the computer’s webcam that had been activated in Blake’s bedroom. Robbins claims that the Matsko accused him of selling drugs when she saw him holding up what she believed to be pills. The 15-year-old says he was simply holding his favorite candy, “Mike And Ikes,” which are small oblong, chewy jelly beans.
The facts of the case aren’t all in and the school district denies that it turns on the cameras for any reason other than when the laptops are reported stolen or lost. Of course, they failed to inform the families of this “feature” and have now disabled the cameras while this case is under review.
This is something that folks should be aware of as cameras have become ubiquitous on laptops now. If they come with a cover, close them when the cam’s not in use. If they don’t, I would consider using a piece of paper and tape to cover them, frankly, unless you know your network is actively blocking incoming requests to actuate services on your gear. Of course, in this case, the laptop likely had software on it that “phoned home” to some command management console at the school to receive commands. Physically blocking the camera is really the only way to be sure someone’s not taking a picture of you.
The school had better be able to show some serious control over this feature. If the cameras could be activated by any school employee and no log of that activation was kept, it’s going to be very hard for them to make the case that they weren’t opening up peepholes in peoples’ homes. As this case moves forward I’ll write more when more is known.
It’s from 2007 but this 20/20 segment by John Stossel on the link between more stringent gun control laws and higher crime rates is just as timely today.
Imagine your family’s finances if you spent and borrowed like Washington: you’d owe $60 in credit-card loans for every $100 of income. Every month you’d pay back a little but borrow even more. In 10 years, you’d owe $87 for every $100 you made. At some point you’d hand off the debt to your kids. If they worked until 2035, they’d owe more than $180 for every $100 they earned. In 2050, your grandkids would owe more than $320. By 2080 they’d owe seven times their earnings. Of course, lenders would cut them off well before then, and your family would be ruined. But this is the path your government is on right now.
We need to be discussing these and other ideas that don’t end in the government confiscating 75% of what people earn.
Earlier this week Candace Strother addressed the folks at the Leisure World Republican Club. Since I know there will be folks interested in this Chairman’s race that won’t get the chance to come to the meeting on Tuesday, 23 Feb, to hear Candace speak I thought it might be a good thing to post this here and let you listen for yourself.
“I, like you, believe that it’s imperative that we keep this winning momentum going.” – Candace Strother
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