Category: News

  • Cyber Attacks are the New Privateers

    I am sure that you have seen in the news, if not been personally affected by the recent cyber-attacks on the Colonial Pipeline and the JBS Meat plants. Biden is in Europe getting our allies’ support in confronting Putin over this, as most of the hackers are based in Russia, if not Russian. Cyber-attacks, or ransomware, has been going on for a while. I think Gray’s Anatomy did an episode on it, and the company my brother used to work for got hacked, and ransomed. I don’t think its hyperbole when the Director of the FBI and CIA say that these hacks are a national threat to our security and economy.

    But when people, especially politicians, say that the world has never seen attacks on nations like this before; I disagree.

    What I think of is the Age of Privateers, or as it is also known, The Age of Pirates, which roughly was about 1600 to the 1856, when the Declaration of Paris outlawed the practice of privateering. In case you don’t know, a privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war (Thank you, Wikipedia). In practice, it was legalized piracy, provided that the pirates didn’t attack the government that legalized them. Privateering was meant to disrupt trade routes and economically hurt a nation. If you hurt your enemy in the wallet, and make the delivery of good difficult, then you have a leg up on them in war.

    That’s what I see nations, like Russia, doing today, allowing pirates to have safe havens in their borders to wreak havoc, as long as those pirates go after Russia’s enemies. The hackers are taking money from local governments and business, and also showing the weaknesses in America’s cyber infrastructure.

    What I am waiting to see is if; one, world nations sign a new Declaration of Paris that outlaws giving safe harbor to cyber criminals, or two, cyber criminals turn on their host nations, just like the privateers did. There is a reason why privateers become pirates – if you are willing to steal from one country, you can steal from all of them.

  • New Mask Rules

    So, we don’t have to wear masks, pretty much, anymore. That happened a lot faster and sooner that I thought. Not that I am complaining, but if that is what science is saying…

    I am aware that you still need to have a mask on for public transit, and I’m cool with that.

    The funny thing is that yesterday, the kid and I decided to take the subway to a playground because, well, we can do that again. We can go out and explore our city. We found a playground that wasn’t too far away, but wasn’t too close. We masked up on the ride down to the park, and I kept mine on as we entered the playground. I found a bench to sit at, and took my mask off as I can, now. The kid, on the other hand, kept her mask on as she ran around and made new friends.

    We were there for a long time, as it was a nice day, and the kid deserved some freedom. As the time to head home neared, I got up, and put my mask on the cross the playground, and then SNAP! The elastic that fits around my left ear snapped. I was mask-less, and I didn’t have a backup.

    What an ironic conundrum to be in. Only an hour or two earlier the CDC had said that masks weren’t required, but I needed a mask to ride the subway home. The easy answer was that I just had to retie the elastic so it would fit around my ear, but for a minute, I wondered when will we be able to ditch all the masks?

  • Hey NYC Mayoral Candidates, Buy a Home in Brooklyn

    I quote Desus and Mero on this, “Why would anyone want to be mayor of New York?”

    It is a job where 80% of the city hates you, at any given time, no matter what you do.

    Mind you, I have only lived through two mayors in my time here; Bloomberg and de Blasio. Neither one of those guys inspired me to vote for them. But this election cycle, I feel more civically involved and plan on voting this time around. The truth of the matter is that the Democratic Primary for Mayor is the real election, as the Republican candidate doesn’t stand a chance. Full disclosure, I am not registered as Democrat, I’m an Independent, so I will not be allowed to vote in the primary of either party. General election all the way for me.

    So, there are eight people running for the Democrat nomination; Andrew Yang, Kathryn Garcia, Shaun Donovan, Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley, Ray McGuire, Eric Adams, and Dianne Morales. I haven’t done much research on any candidate, so I’m not sold on anyone. But, the nomination is out of my hands, so, I’ll have to see who is selected.

    But, there are a few things I do want whomever becomes mayor of this city to be aware of, and that’s how much it costs to live here, which is stupidly expensive. (Not San Francisco stupid which is like a whole other planet of unreasonable stupid.) Donovan and McGuire were asked what they thought the median home price in Brooklyn was, and their answer was in the range of $100,000 and less. So you know, the median price of a home in Brooklyn is $900,000. You can read the story here for more information on what the other candidates said, which was closer to being correct.

    Odds are that Donovan and McGuire, who are not leading in the polls, won’t get the nomination, but still, how did these two come up with that number, which was so far off? Clearly, they are out of touch, but do they think $100k buys a lot, or do they think that $100k homes are still available today, or was that what $100k could buy 40 years ago and they just defaulted back to that number?

    Either way, except for Yang, all the candidates got he question wrong. It doesn’t bode well for us if the person who wants to lead has no idea how difficult it is to live in this town. See, who wants this job?

  • If You Ban Books, Remember to Bring Props

    Today, I read an opinion essay in The New York Times by Carmen Maria Machado about books being banned, especially her memoir In The Dream House, in Leander, TX. (Go Texas!) To quote from Machado’s essay;

    “This year, a parent in Leander, Texas — livid that “In the Dream House” appeared on high school classes’ recommended reading lists— brought a pink strap-on dildo to a school board meeting. Voice trembling with disgust, she read excerpts from my book — including one where I referred to a dildo, inspiring the prop — before arguing that letting a student read my book could be considered child abuse.”

    Sadly, the parents in Leander are trying to ban books, which, and no one there seems to have learned this, never works. For one, you can’t kill an idea, and two, the parents are just making these books even more desirable to their kids, because the books have become clandestine.

    Please, read Machado’s essay, as she makes a very persuasive argument for the need of teenagers to have access to books that share a wide range of different viewpoints from a spectrum of authors. But, she also points out that education on healthy relationships is never taught in schools, and her book, and many others, can be a teaching tools for what a compassionate and caring partnership between adults can and should be. I found the essay well written, and made me think more about what my daughter should have access to.

    One last funny note…

    Please click the link, “brought a pink strap-on dildo ,” because I had a question. As the parents were offended by the book, “In the Dream House,” somehow they thought, especially Lori Hines as she is the woman in the picture, that bringing a dildo was a great “prop” idea for the meeting. You know, really ramming home their point, but it does raise questions for me like; Did Lori go out and buy a pink strap-on dildo, did she own one, or did she borrow it? Also, what is she planning on doing with it now that the meeting is over? Did she think about how in the high school, she will be known as the “pink strap-on dildo mom?” If you didn’t want kids exposed to pink strap-on dildos, you have, in fact, exposed your kids to a pink strap-on dildo? (Also, saying pink strap-on dildo over and over again is kind’a fun.) This might be a moment where the stunt upstaged the message.

  • USA’s History of Vaccines

    So, the more that I read, the more that I am coming to the realization that 30% to 40% of this nation just won’t get vaccinated. I really wish this wasn’t true, because I do think that creating the Covid vaccines, manufacturing them, and get it distributed around this country, and now the world, is actually an amazing feat of humanity’s ingenuity. But still, people, for a great number of reasons, won’t get vaccinated.

    The more I think about this, I wonder, why there is this anti-vax contingent of our nation, when 70 to 80 years ago, people got vaccinated in high numbers, close to 90%? In fact, so many people got the measles vaccine in the 60’s, that the disease was virtually eradicated in America. Looking more into the history of this country, when it comes to vaccines, sadly, we have always had some of the lowest rates of inoculation. Especially at the start of the 20th century, even though in 1905 the Supreme Court upheld compulsory vaccination laws in the case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts. Things really didn’t change in the country until vaccine laws were enforced after World War II.

    Before I read this information today, I had created this theory in my head that all the people who lived in the world before antibiotics, and mass vaccines have passed on, so there is no collective memory of what that world was like. That we are the spoiled children of history, because we don’t know what a world without effective and predictable healthcare is like.

    And that theory is wrong.

    The fact is that Americas won’t get vaccinated unless a law is passed and they have to.

    USA! USA! USA!