A Prayer to Geeks

image from  lendinggeek.com/

There is that new concept among you, Geeks, to anticipate what I want. As a result, Word changes my presentation without warning, and even if I disable all the "autocorrect" functions, you sneak in and try to do things better for me. Excel has become totally unreliable, it was such a sweet easy program, what have you done?

And Google tells me what I think all day long, finishing my sentences and telling me what I am searching for.

Most people think that the big government is stealing our freedom, it is not true, it is the Big Geeks.

When I was in my 50s, my Mom was still telling me "Don't forget your scarf!" and now in my 70s, I am surrounded by an army of young Geeks who tell me what I think. Let me breathe.

Please, dear Geeks, let me get a little bit of freedom. Freedom takes some time but it is precious to me,  and I am less stupid than you think.

Hypocrisy is tiresome

 Image from: http://www.thedogrescuers.com/statistics--facts.html

If nobody was using any contraceptive method, all women, Christian or not,  would have 14 children. So all these scenes and posturing against contraception, that is pure political garbage.
Thanks to the same guys, we already have one  million abused and neglected children in this country every year that God made: to pressure people who do not want children to have kids (you will love them when they are born) is not working. Worse: it is criminal. Some people are not meant to have children (like some people are not meant to have dogs and cats). We may not like it, but it is a fact. It is also their right. 

The Harlot of Babylon

Image from Wikipedia

Governor Perry has invited his evangelical friends from Texas, Kansas and Yonder to an evangelical day of prayer that we badly need.
As it happens, the evangelical view is there to divide, not to unite Americans. They call Oprah "the Harlot of Babylon" and from what I read in the New York Mag the statue of Liberty is "demonic "
We suffer through this under the magic subtitle "freedom of expression."
Well, the good side of insults is that they are flexible. If I was inclined to pick on this, I would choose Jerry Springer as the Harlot of Babylon: to each its own; the sex of the harlot has not been determined.
And we can reverse this too, we could call Governor Perry "demonic" and the Statue of Liberty would become the Harlot of Babylon. It is more poetic this way.
 I cannot remember that any candidate prayed in public for political gain when I was young. When I was young, prayer was different.

Revamping the CIA

I have been wondering why it is that the CIA always has a worse rep than their equivalent in other countries. All nations have spies, and all spying institutions sometimes misbehave. We got spy scandals in every democracy I have known in the last fifty years, It goes with secrecy that bad stuff is committed and that a few traitors are somehow generated. We got to keep both down best we can.

So there are scandals galore everywhere: how come the CIA is always the only bad guy in the news? I think it is cultural: Americans are raised to tell the truth, to talk in you face and go for a good fight: dissimulation is just not American. It is not true for the British, who have been raised in the complex heritage of Victorian times: all their education is about keeping to the weather, keeping a straight upper lip and all the restraints of the rules of good conduct. They may like a good fight too, but they understand the need for secrecy much better. As for the French, they have a large practice of double entendre and an unhealthy respect for the authority in place coupled with underlying rage: it is why they always leak information.

But of course we need our spies and they need to be respected. It is time to stop playing "I am a good person because I don't like the CIA". Maybe part of the bad stuff that happened at the CIA did so because they could not recruit in a net large enough. So all these people who felt too good for the CIA are to be blamed too.

It is time for the CIA to have a good image: it will help the institution inside and outside. They should spend a few million dollars on self-promotion. They battled Communism by supporting good anti-communist books, so they know the power of books, they should support themselves with good pro-CIA literature. The trouble with present CIA mystery novels is that they are based on the British model, and it does not quite "take" over here, except if the hero is British. The key, I think, is to put the accent on outsmarting. Let us leak some stories where we have been outsmarting bad guys (there must be leak-free stories, there always are) and pay some popular writers to enhance the CIA image.
I am getting tired of that constant criticism of the CIA: it is like walking on your own foot.

The next terrorist

This nice-looking, highly educated young man, Jean Bastien-Thiry tried to kill President De Gaulle and was executed. When I was in France, some colleagues of mine, to my surprise, brought flowers to his tomb years and years after his death.
Many people tend to view terrorists as inflamed Muslims: it is a dangerous view. Terrorism always starts at home. Indeed terrorists have one thing in common with pedophiles: they recognize each other, communicate with each other, help each other and commit crimes together. They grow up at home, in a family who defines itself as "victim" and has "enemies". Look at the Balkans, at the IRA, at Palestine, at Serbia, at Kashmer, at Mumbai, and look at Timothy McVeigh. These guys all reason the same way: it is a community of minds.

They are now linked together, thanks to technological progress and globalization. It does not take much for a big hit:
- an intellectual leader and fund provider (remember the Marx-Engels team? Engels, who was of a well-off family was paying all of Marx expenses: terrorists thrive of that kind of alliance).
- a clique of poor and poorly educated idealists trained to be ready for anything.

Terrorism is ancient: the best description of a terrorist was written in 1885 by Emile Zola in Germinal The most instructive movie on the subject is still probably The Day of the Jackal: you got to see Edward Fox in a very impressive interpretation. I met some terrorists, I know what they look like, and they look just like that.

In a way, it is a blessing that they are so wired towards taking lives and getting headlines, because it limits the damage they do. But don't count on it to remain this simple. At Mumbai, they tried to start an Indian-Pakistan war with fake messages. It is interesting, because it goes further than "kill and get the press".

What is next? An alliance with Mexican drug dealers and an attack of the Internet.
Why the Internet? If we get no computers, we cant even go to war. The Internet remains our weakest spot. Yes, the Bush government has spent money on Gov sites' protection, but it is a short view. We need to protect the communication network per se and have banks and businesses protected too.
Why Mexico? 1) It is the closest country with major corruption, it is the easiest way to snuggle in, and there is a lot of cash around. 2) 30 milions Americans are on drugs. Who needs a Muslim terrorist? The pie is here, and it is ready.


How did I form this bizarre opinion? With a bunch of fun information. Here it is.

An old book by Cliff Stoll The cuckoo's egg. This is the true story of a young astronomer from Berkeley making some money as a computer assistant manager. Cliff is in charge of finding the origin of a 75 cents discrepancy between the two systems allotting computer time and billing at Berkeley. This 75 cents error is the astonishing start of the discovery of an international spy network. What you got to remember from the book is that almost nobody takes security at heart for a long time. Since the book, the technology has changed, people have not changed: we all have sloppy records on security.
In Vernon Vinge's Rainbows' end, a man recovering from Alzheimer has to learn new technology. It is just the start of a complex plot. The book deals with augmented reality and virtual worlds and all kinds of exciting concepts.
George Alec Effinger mixed humor, dark thoughts and dark visions in a very unique way. When Gravity Fails is set in a time where the Arab world dominates a decadent western civilization. All kinds of gadgets appear in the book that can modify one's brain.
On the dangers of all this technology to freedom, I thought that The net (1995, with Sandra Bullock) presented a good case. Some people thought that it was too far-fetched: all the stolen info in the movie comes from a popular program. Guess what? It is just what the Russian internet thieves did."A Russian company that sells fake antivirus software that actually takes over a computer pays its illicit distributors as much as $5 million a year." Source:John Markoff, NYTimes, Dec 5, 2008.
As for Mexico, go buy the last Newsweek (Dec,8,2008, Bloodshed on the border) and the last Counter Terrorism (winter issue 2008 Welcome to hell: the mexican drug war).
You add the money that drugs lords make and the money that internet thieves make, you got to conclude that we are more rich than we think. We can afford to lose $100 billion a year (see Markoff paper above) in internet fraud and 65 billions a year in illegal drugs (see drugcaucus.senate.gov). We could buy cars with all that money!
In the meantime, where does the drug money go? To friends of the US? Not a chance.
Time to ask yourself and your kids what we asked after 9/11: "Are you funding terrorism?"

How my freedom withered

Do you remember all these governmental reassurances about the high professionalism of the terrorist surveillance program? It did not bother me: as my neighbor said: "If they want to listen to my conversations with my aunt Amy, they are welcome to it!" Most of us have a boring life. The problem is that there is no such a thing as high professionalism, so of course we now hear stories of American soldiers abroad being listened to and laughed at when they have intimate conversations with their spouse. I do believe that the temptation to listen to political adversaries is also very great, and if we do, it is the end of democracy.

The police, or maybe your offended spouse, can easily add a GPS to your car (without a warrant) or, would you believe it, in the soles of your shoes. Then of course with credit cards and internet information, almost anybody will know more about you than you know yourself, because one can apply mathematical models to what you do. Why we still refuse to have an identity card does not make that much sense any more: we just refuse to face the truth.

But the worst enemy of freedom is not the government, it is science. Most of what we call adventure is now a fake: the world has been discovered, and if you do not prepare adequately for a trip, you are just a fool. I know in the morning how to dress because I look at the weather channel. I know it is bad to smoke, to drink in excess and to have unprotected sex (who knew much about these three things fifty years ago?) I am overwhelmed by dieting advice and I am instructed to measure my waist and make penance if I want to live longer. I am told how many steps I should walk everyday; science has counted them. Recently, the environmentalists got on my back too, and every detail of my house is reconfigured.

It is all for the better good, but freedom?
Freedom has one foot in the grave and it is the price we pay.