Abandon Hope and Change Course

I am a firm believer of mutual self construction.
By which I mean individuals
united in their seclusion.
Conjoined disjointed orphans
Erecting a Solace of Fortitude,
Asylums of Family Disunity
A harmonious cacophony of orchestrated solos
Instrumental temperamental
monumental chorus vocalizing
localizing
Individual vision

Alas
Feral sheep shepherded astray
by a Piper's dulcet atonement
Promissory sour notes called
due
Bald faced ideological ribaldry
Preselected elected offal, officious
Inhumane scentipede
Mentally ill dressed succession
of public servants self servicing

Disarmed armada of the disillusioned
flotilla of fools on the Hill
Come sale away with me, indeed
Flotsam jet setters presiding
Deciding
Die-er consequences
Pirated copies of declarations
of interdependence.
Anchors a weigh

My country-
 tis for me
Sweet land where things are free
Of me Im singing
Land where our fathers sighed
Land where their dreams have died
State of Ship of State, Sinking

Of Genie's, bottles, and Pandora's Box

Unless you've been living under a rock, or just don't care about tech news. There is a big dustup between Apple and the FBI over a federal court order intended to force apple to create a "special iOS version" of the software that runs on the iPhone for the express purpose of allowing the FBI to "brute force" the iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist so that they can extract any possible information from that phone that may lead the investigators to other terrorists before they can harm more Americans.

"SO WHAT!!" You exclaim. Who cares? Screw Apple, they should do the patriotic thing and help the Government catch those terrorist dogs before more Americans are hurt or killed!

Whoa there skippy! Calm down. Put down that pitchfork and put out that torch before you hurt yourself. Let me explain why I and a lot of others who understand this situation are behind Apple defying this court order...100%.

1.) The federal government is asking for something that does not exist. While they are saying that it is only this one time, if Apple were to comply and spend the millions of dollars developing this backdoor, the precedent would be set and more and more cases would be based on this. There are already discussions about how strong of encryption/security civilians should be allowed to have. That should scare any sane person out of their minds. Additionally, there are reports of as many as 13 other iPhones that the FBI want included on this court order. So much for just this one time, just this one phone. As I said above...the Genie will be out of the bottle and won't go back

2.) Apple has built a reputation of having extremely secure products, building this custom version of iOS would destroy that reputation while putting the security of every single iPhone owner at risk of having their information stolen because the details of this iOS version will be leaked, people can be bought. Having this tool available is dangerous, plain and simple. When its details were to get out, regardless of how, someone will find a way to reverse engineer it so that it can be remotely installed on the iPhone of unsuspecting people. Information will be stolen. Hackers are crafty suckers. If something exists, they will find a way to get it, or break into it.
3.) This brings up my 3rd point, the reason the government cannot break this phone is because of the hackers they employ. They don't employ people who have the creative genius necessary to do this sort of work. The Mozarts, and Bachs of our day. The people who can see systems in ways that you can I could never learn. The government won't hire these people. Why? Because they won't hire people with 2' tall mohawks, tattoos, heavy gauge piercings, who demand a salary of over $500,000/yr. There are people who do hire them. One of them is named Tim McAfee. He has said that he his team can break that phone within 3 weeks time and they will do it for free. Tim hires the right people to do that because he has built an international company around security. A company that is trusted, and has earned that trust through years of keeping peoples data safe. Its what they do.

4.) Despite what is being reported, Apple has been cooperating with the FBI. They have spent a large amount of money advising the FBI and offering specifications and other details in their attempt to help the FBI to break this phone. They said that if there was a way to get the phone to back itself up to the iCloud that they would decrypt and turn the data over to the FBI from that backup. The problem with that idea comes from a low level county employee who changed the iTunes password that was associated with that phone. That single act prevents that phone from performing a backup  to the iCloud. Where Apple is having an issue is the order to create that which doesn't exist. A specialized, and compromised, version of iOS.

Yes, Apple has broken into iPhones in the past. Those iPhones were running older, not nearly as secure versions of iOS. Those phones lack the hardware, and software protective measures that the newer iPhones, such as my iPhone 6s has. These are complex systems that where software and hardware work together to protect the data that is stored on the data.

Look at it this way. Would you want the manufacturers of the government computer systems to leave back doors that they could use to get into the systems, you know just in case.

The long and the short of it is, Apple did a damn fine job making sure that phone is not able to be broken. They did a damn fine job making a product that is secure, and now they are being told that they have to compromise that security by creating a compromised version of iOS. That compromised version will find its way into the wild into the hands of nefarious people. That compromised version will be abused by our government.

Yes I am all for catching terrorists. But I will not sacrifice liberty (mine or another's) in order to do it. Those that would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.

The Economics of Blue Nail Polish.

  Did my nails the other day. Now, I don't do that often, but when I do, I lean towards blues, teals and other non traditional colors. I even have a lovely shade of olive drab I picked up a few months ago. I certainly don't need all these colors, ( honestly don't need any..). But isn't it nice that I have all of them to choose from

  That right there, is the beauty of a capitalist system, choice. I stroll along through a store, something shiny and bright catches my eye.  I may see one, two or three different colors I need ( don't), and plop they go in the buggy. To the counter I go with my money, and the deal is done.

  Someone somewhere in the nail polish factory decided to add new and different colors, and people bought them. They sold so well, they kept adding more and more colors. And now we have the wonder that is the cosmetics aisle. The more we buy the more they make. The more they make, the more we buy.  The market dries up, and production stops.

  Socialism is anti-choice. Socialism says you can have too many choices, that other things are more important than choosing nail color, the planet is boiling for Pete's sake. If you don't believe me, ask Bernie Sanders

  "You can't just continue growth for the sake of growth in a world in which we are struggling with climate change and all kinds of environmental problems. All right? You don't necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country. I don't think the media appreciates the kind of stress that ordinary Americans are working on."

  Choice is bad, gosh darn it. Everyone should just use the approved scent, flavor, colors. Everyone should drink the prescribed amount of the approved beverage and be happy. Do it for the planet.

  It fascinates me, the people that would vote for Bernie and his anti choice rhetoric  are typically those with rainbow locks, who stand in line at a specialty coffee store for diverse beverages chosen from a varied menu, and ponder seriously over the wide range of free range tofu at the local organic market. People who proudly proclaim their individuality, clamor for forced conformity, in the name of social justice and income equality, never equating equality with sameness.

  Diversity happens when there are choices to be made. The permutations available in our capitalistic American society are limited only by our imaginations. What grand imaginations they are, too! Why anyone would want to limit us to centrally planned choices is beyond my comprehension. Why anyone would willingly vote for someone that proudly proclaims he would limit your choices, even more so.