What do we know about NSA snooping?

Well, listening to the TV we don't know much.  Here is what they could do, especially after spending $1 billion on a fancy data center in Utah.
  They can capture and save the billing records of every phone call on the planet.  They call it "metadata", but it's the stuff of your phone bill, what numbers you called, how long you talked.  This allows the feds or other snoopers to go into the system with your phone number and learn all the other phone numbers you have called, going back a long time.  They claim it's just phone numbers, but that doesn't matter.  Put your own phone number into Google and Google will return your name and address.  You might have to pay a little money, but heh, the Feds have lots of money.   If the Feds have a phone number, they can get the name without much trouble.   I believe they used the system on the Boston bombers.  It fingered an old associate of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.  The FBI interviewed the associate and shot him dead during the interview.  The FBI claimed self defense, the associate pulled a knife on them, they say.
    Speaking of the Boston Bombers, the FBI had a solid tip from the Russians that the older brother was a terrorist.  FBI claims to have interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but they didn't bother to pass the tip on to the local police, who usually have better local connections than Washington based FBI guys.  Nor did they bother to put Tamerlan on a no-fly list, and they let him fly to Russia and back, and hobnob with Chechen terrorists without tipping off the Russians.
   The Feds can read all your email, see what websites you visit, how often and how long, and see all your Facebook, Myspace and where ever postings.  If you post anything on suspicious websites, that makes you suspicious too.   
  I don't think they can tap (listen to conversations) on every phone on the planet, yet.
  NSA must have direct electronic connections into the phone system computers, as well as all the internet backbone companies.  I heard the back bone companies on TV deny this, but I don't believe them. 
   This "FISA" court which is supposed to be "overseeing" NSA, approved all but 10 of 1824 snooping requests. That isn't a court, that's a rubber stamp.
  I don't know where I stand on the NSA thing.  One on hand, being able to drop Osama bin Laden's phone number into the system and see every one he phoned is clearly useful.  On the other hand,  dropping the phone numbers of  anyone the administration dislikes, or conservative bloggers like me, into the system is scary.  Plus Osama Bin Ladin gave up using phones after the ever patriotic New York Times revealed that NSA was tapping his satellite phone.
 

Sequestering the STEM

Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM).   Due to the sequester, Obama wants to consolidate 226 separate federal STEM programs into a mere 110.  These programs are scattered out between DoD, DHS, and NASA.  Obama claims that overall funding would be hiked 6% after culling out half the programs. 
   Wow.  All these cuts and we spend more money.  And on such a worthy idea.  Oh yes, the new program will increase participation by women and minorities in the STEM programs.  How uplifting.
   Too bad it won't do much to increase the number of US students taking STEM courses.  Students decide which educational track they are going to take way down in middle school.  Most of 'em decide to avoid STEM courses after being subject to a terrible one, taught by an ed major with no understanding or love for the subject.  The ed major reduces the science course to memorization of fancy scientific vocabulary and the math course to tedious solving of equations.   It doesn't take much of this kind of abuse to convince middle schoolers that math and science are hard and should be avoided. 
   No amount of federal STEM programs are going to repair the damage done to students by horrible middle school math and science teaching. 

Lease or Buy?

In a slow moment, I read thru the car ads delivered to my mailbox.  The Chrysler dealer wasn't mentioning price in his ads, just monthly lease payments.  Then in the fine print it said "Current Chrysler lease holders and other major makers lease holders only".  Translation, no deal unless you already lease a car.  Which lets out most people.   But, the dealer must think people like to lease cars, otherwise why advertise lease terms that most people won't be eligible for?  He could have advertised monthly payments, or even (shudder) the scary asking price. 
   In fact, why do dealers want to lease instead of sell?  On a lease deal the dealer has to find the loan to pay the car company for the car.  That's trouble and money.  Why not just sell the car outright? Then the customer is on the hook for financing the deal. 
   One reason might be the lease terms are better for the dealer.  I looked at one deal, a 39 month lease with 25 cents a mile for all miles over 25,000.  Figure most people rack up 20,000 miles a year, 60,000 over three years.  Between the lease payments and the extra mileage charges, that lease deal would pay off the asking price of the car (pickup truck in this case) in 39 months and the dealer still owns the truck.  Nice dealer markup on that deal. 
   My car buyers advice.  1. Buy a late model used car. 2. Buy it outright, run it til it drops. 

Grass Attack. Adventures in Lawncare

The rain finally let up today after four solid days.  The grass was on the warpath.  Once it gets too tall, the mower won't cut it, and then, Katie bar the door.  So I took advantage of the break in the weather to get in a quick mow.  The grass wasn't really dry enough, but my nice new mostly plastic Husqvarna reel mower was up to the challenge. When wet, the grass bends over and mats down instead of standing proud and getting cut off at the neck.  And it sticks the the mower, everywhere.  But I made it to the end, it doesn't look too raggedy, and we can survive more rain, which is forecast, starting this afternoon. 
  Dandelion control is still holding up.  I only found two to pluck this morning.  Getting 'em early did the trick this season. 
  Then we gotta keep mowing back the Wild Wood.  Weeds, saplings, briars, raspberries and who knows what else, keep trying to invade the lawn, grow up tall, shade out the grass, and bring the woods up to the house.  Mow those infiltrators right down to the ground.

If the Republicans are this stupid they deserve to die

I swiped the title from this article by Ann Coulter.  Ann can get a bit hard core, but here she makes a certain amount of sense.  Ann is saying that the Hispanic vote isn't all that large, and Republican efforts to pass an immigration bill to woo the Hispanic vote are counterproductive.  At least she has her numbers right.  The Hispanic vote is perhaps 5%.  The women's vote is 50%, and the Republicans lost women voters to Obama by a margin of 10%.   If Romney had carried the women's vote he would be president right now. 
   If Republicans are looking for an ethic group to woo, women outnumber Hispanics by 10:1.  And half of the Hispanics are women.  We need some intelligent polling to figure out why women went for Obama and what would bring them back to voting Republican.  I've heard a lot of talk about abortion and contraception and gun control and other wedge issues, but I'm not convinced that this talk means anything. Much of it comes from advocates who will say anything to advance their pet cause. 
   As for immigration, there are some things that ought to be done.  Right now Congresscritters are trying to sell us a pig in a poke.  I have no idea what is hidden inside that immigration bill.  They plan to vote it thru and then we are stuck with it. 
   Things that ought to be done.
1.  Honorable service in the US armed forces should grant citizenship.
2.  We should favor immigrants who will contribute to the economy and pay their way over elderly parents of  citizens. 
3.  The United States has plenty of room for more citizens, and a declining birthrate.  We need immigration to keep our population up.  Population decline, like much of the rest of the first world is undergoing, makes everyone poorer. 
4.  We don't want to fingerprint foreigners on the way in and the way out.  It's degrading.  That is hidden inside the pig-in-a-poke immigration bill.  Checking their passports is enough.
5.  Illegals currently inside the country are outlaws.  They don't dare call fire or police at need lest they get deported.  Employers pay them like dirt, when they hire them, which a lot of them don't.  This situation is dreadful and we should be ashamed of it.  I have nothing against legalizing the bulk of them who are just raising their families, holding down jobs, obeying the law and staying out of trouble.  

Somebody loves Patent Trolls

Over at the Hoover Institute we have some lawyers  defending patent trolls.  They make the argument that patent trolling is merely specialization of labor.  Some companies specialize in making steel, others specialize in flying passengers, patent trolls specialize in maximizing patent income for patent holders.  Yeah Right.
   In actual fact we have scary amounts of money sucked out of productive companies and poured down the maws of lawyers. 

Nice Immigration bill they got there. Wonder what's in it

Immigration bill is on the TV news.  There was one shot of a Congressman picking up a state of paper 6 inches high.  If they pass it, what will it do to us?  Anyone know? 
  I'd feel better about it if it was limited to about 20 pages, double spaced and doubled sided, so I could read it and know what we were getting into.  No way am I (or anyone else) is gonna read thru a 6 inch high pile of paper.