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And as we come to the kick off of the official Presidential season (After more than 2 years of campaigning, I think someone should give out awards for this debacle.  Like the award for worst manage campaign.  How can you tell America you are going to be a president that can make a difference when you can’t even run a campaign without running up so much debt that two months later you are still in the whole (and let’s not forget that you actually loaned yourself $12 million or more.  So much for the check mark in fiscal responsibility)).  I was excited in ‘06 at the thought of a true bipartisan ticket (McCain/Lieberman).  But after seeing that there would be no bipartisan ticket, I started to lean toward this Obama fellow.  The promise of a new kind of politician really appealled to me.

Sadly, it’s not true.  And the worst part is, rather than the politics of fear being the problem, it’s the politics of hope.  My wife, a die hard Obama fan, can’t see that the same rules should apply to the hope message that apply to the fear message.  The simpliest of these tules are: “Any message, no matter how positive, should be based in fact.”  The problem is niether candidate is putting out facts.  They are using spin to create an image, and that will lead us to the same problems that keep occurring.

Do I think that Obama would ake a bad president?  No (I also don’t htin John McCain would be a bad president).  But the problem is that the grade is on a bell curve.  American politicians have turned into a group of do nothing borderline criminals.  Name another business that can run up that much debt, lie to their customers about it, and not land the executives in jail?  The entire system is more about getting elected than acutally changing the system.  College political professors talk about how a third party cannot succeed at the national level.  (George Washington is turning over in his grave right now!)

So, what can we do?  Well, for starters, we can let the politicians know that taking two years off to get your next job is unacceptable.  (The thing that really turned me off to Obama was his world wide presidential tour, which he apparently had time for, and he has yet to hold a hearing on the commitee he chairs. Which commitee is that you may ask?  The oversight comittee that is responsible Operation Enduring Freedom, also known as the war in Afghanistan.   Way to show leadership and responsibility!  And could you and the rest of the DNC admit that the surge worked?  You’re looking more and more like the first 4 years of the current administration, not being able to admit a mistake, than you are the massive movement of change you keep spinning about).  Maybe, if we make them attempt to do their jobs, we can actually start seeing changes (Remember the midterm elections?  How we were going to end the war?  Yeah, that worked well, didn’t it?  Nobody came up with a plan (except John McCain and his type, and it was actually throw more troops at the problem).  Now, We have done what just a few years ago seemed impossible: Gotten to a point where withdrawal talks can actually take place.  What a concept, work towards a solution rather than cover you political skin and wait for the next election to wash away the sins of the past.

I know, I ramble, but my point is simple: If we are truly to take back this country, we must repalce the do nothings in Washington with a new breed of politician that isn’t afraid to do what needs to be done (which is usually hard, and people don’t want to hear it, but pays off big in the end).

You hear so many stories about teens being abducted or sexual assualted by people they meet on the net. How can we protect our youth? Something every parent should read.

You hear so many stories about teens being abducted or sexual assualted by people they meet on the net. How can we protect our youth? Something every parent should read.

To start, let me say I think that sexual predators are one of the worst forms of criminals known to man. Anyone who has these types of urges needs help, and should seek it. But knowing this does little to help us protect our kids from the dangers associated with them.

And the Internet has now given these people a conduit to our kids. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for enabling our youth with technology, but I think we, as parents, need to do a better job. Let me explain.

Would you had a gun to your childern and let them go off and shoot? If you don’t know how to shoot or what to shoot, just ask one of your friedns or a stranger at the range.

Would you give them the keys to the car and say go drive? Oh, and if you need help, just ask other drivers.

You would never do that, and yet that is what we do with our childern on the Internet. And for some, it has turned out to be more dangerous than a gun or car could ever be.

We give our childern computers, and set them into the great unknown. They setup chat accounts and myspace pages, and they are off. How do they decide what to put on their myspace pages? Well, they can just look at their friends pages, or other teens on myspace. Here in lies the lesson (We will label it lesson number 1): Know what is on your kids myspace page! If you don’t, then how are they suppose to know they shouldn’t have put that information on there? And talk to them openly about it.

Which brings us to lesson number 2. Parents have to walk the fine line of control with their childern everyday. Privacy is always an issue. If your kids think you are spying on them, they will find ways to hide their activity (alternate accounts and pages). So I have put together this simple paragraph for you to use:

“Son/Daughter, I am very concerned about your safety and privacy. That is why I will let you use the Internet, but reserve the right to look at your mail/chat/web pages and reveiw them for inappropriate behavior. Do not take this to mean I will censor you. Making derogartory comments about your parents/school/friends and things is self expression. Talking to strangers about sex and clandestines meetings is not. You will have all the freedom to grow, but I reserve the right to protect you.”

Now, you may be thinking, if I find out they told the world they are mad at me for grounding them, I’m gonna ground them again. But if you do, you will be urging secretive behavior. In order for your kids to be safe on the Internet, they need to feel they can talk to you. And if they can’t, the trust will be lost. And if the trust is lost, they will hide things form you. And that is when we get into the danger zones.

Which brings us to lesson 3 - It’s all about communication. If you can communicate openly with your kids, then the Internet will be a safe place. Talk to them about the dangers of strangers on the net, you talk to them about strangers anyway, just make sure to emphasize the dangers associated with the net as well. And you will need to have an open channel of communication about sexs with them. If you can’t, don’t let them on the net at all. Sex is everywhere, and they will come across it. Make sure they are going to you for answers. (Childern will learn in one of two ways, form you or from someone else. The net makes this problem worse. Imagine learning everything about sex from a pedophile or someone who is into S&M?).

I have worked with computers most of my life. I know there are ways to enable monitoring of your kids (Either through special software, or with toools included with some chat or Internet programs). I am developing a guide that covers the steps in detail. Please contact me if you are interested (spank@motleyblogs.com). Together, we can make the Internet safe and fun.

With the terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech, both sides of the Second Amendment battle have come out in force. “Get rid of guns” or “Give everyone guns” are the battle cries from the two divergent groups. But, as with many things, the best answer lies somewhere in the middle, with a giant dose of common sense.

First, let me start by sayinh I am a once and future gun owner. I like the fact that I can own a gun, whatever kind it may be. And I am a true believer in the intent of the second amendment. “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The government shall not infringe on the rights of the people to keep and bear arms. I know, many think that means only one type of weapon (see assualt weapon bans or handgun restrictions). The framers wanted the average citizen to be able to, at any given moment, be called into service to defend the free State. Imagine fighting off blood thirtsy Canadians* with single shot hunting rifles. It’s not what was intended. And yes, the framers knew times would change. The arguement I always love is that back then you only had the single shot rifles, and while this is true, you also had private citizens that owned cannons. Imagine someone owning todays equivalent? How would you feel if your neighbor had a howitzer in their frint yard, with a stack of shells at the ready?

Ok, maybe this is an unrealistic view in the modern context. Maybe we need to adapt the original intent of the second amendment to fit into the modern world. With all the cases of mental illness and the large cities with large crowds, giving people instant access to guns is unrealistic. I do feel the need for a nationalized standard for gun ownership, and an effective waiting period. I also think the standards need reveiwed and periodically updated. Why shouldn’t there be a national program, run by the states, that in effective licenses gun owners? You can even have classes, just like drivers licenses (yes, I know there are firearms classes, but why not expand it: Sporting Rifles, Handguns, Assualt Weapons, Automatic Weapons, etc). You could enlist law enforcement to develop standardized programs. I, for one, have no problem doing all this because I know that the added safety of these steps will help reduce random gun violence like the Virginia Tech Massacre. Take the impulse out of gun crime. Add tougher penalties to any crime involving a gun. Do what is required to make sure every citizen is safe, without removing the second most important amendment* to the Constitution.

But, and here is the real point of my ramblings, in order for this to work, everyone must work together. Both sides must stop being polar opposites and work together. This is the basis of our entire system. Nothing will ever get done unless we are willing to make compromises within the framework provided by our founding fathers. They wanted us to be just like the original minute men. Ready to defend our country on a moments notice. But they also wanted to make sure that every American can sleep safe at night, gun ownership or not. Good gun purchasing control programs coupled with education requirements can go a long way to accomplishing both the goals.

Now for the *
1) I once read an article on Operation Red Book. Since then I, like the creators of South Park, have used Canada when referring to an invasion threat to the USA. I want to assure any Canadians that I am not serious and that I respect their culture and rights to exist to our north.
2) Since it is number 2, the framers only thought of one item they wanted to put before it.

Take care, God Bless

John

A federal judge dismissed a case brought against MySpace. They plan to appeal, but for the moment, justice is done!

A family is suing MySpace.com for allowing their 14 year old girl to meet someone (a 19 year old) and provide her cell phone number to them (oh, they also met for a date before she was assualted). Clearly, MySpace needs to do more to protect our kids (and needs to shill out $30 million to comfort us).

Ok, you could probably tell from the intro that I feel very strongly on this matter. For those of you who have read my previous columns, you know how I feel about parental responsibilites. You also know how I feel about web pages and chat accounts. In case you don’t, here is a reminder. Parents need to know what their kids are doing. This is not to say you know each and every action, but you should at least know the date your 14 year old is going on is with a 19 year old she met on the Internet. That is the bottom line. No parent can claim an external source such as myspace is responsible for poor parental control.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I feel horrible for the girl. The fact that she had to endure this situation is simply unforgivable. The 19 year old who did this should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. (I personally wonder if we will ever know what happens to him, or if it will all blow over). I do make the assumption that he was guilty (for the sake of arguement and also the lack of facts detailing the incident).

But, one fact that does reamin is MySpace had nothing to do with the two going on a date. The girl provided her mobile number to the boy. (My question is why not also sue the mobile carrier?) The basis for the complaint is that MySpace needs to do a better job of protecting the kids, and that it doesn’t properly screen ages.

So, the complaint is kids can lie about their age and get MySpace accounts. Is that worth $30 Million? My thought is no, it’s not. If anything, MySpace should put up a bold flashing sign indicating that what you are reading is more than likely a big set of lies, and it would be stupid of you to actually believe any of it, It would require an almost brainless leap for you to actually provide contact details to anyone you meet here and you should ask your parents for guidance (or possibly therapy) if you think it may be a good idea to go on a date with anyone you meet on the Internet.

Again, I feel sorry for the poor girl. I feel doubly sorry because her parents need to lash out at MySpace. Will getting $30 Million from News Corp (MySpace’s Parent company) actually remedy the “abuse” MySpace casued. And secondly, did they cause it?

The problem is, for MySpace to properly defend itself, it will have to show the parents and teh girl were at fault, not them. This is where words like “This corporate bastards” usually come in to play. In order for MySpace to show the world the problem, they have to tell a very inconvient truth (with apologies to Al Gore). Parents need to take responsibility for their kids. We have become what I refer to as the “Oprah” generation. We are a product of the 60’s and 70’s. The driving philosophy is that we can do it all. The problem with that is simply summed up: “Jack of all trades, Master of none”. And the trade we fail the most in is our kids.

Husbands and Wifes now have careers and lives. The kids are left to be raised by the community, including all of it’s technological marvels. TV and the Internet are used where family time used to be. Is this wrong? Not exactly. Is doing it the way we have been wrong? Totaly.

We set our kids out on the Internet, and don’t supervise them. From an early age, they develop skills far beyond what we are capabale of. And we hid beihnd that excuse when a terrible incident occurs. I am not suggesting everyone needs to learn as much as their kids, but you do need to know what is going on.

And as far as chat, blogging and even mobile phones are concerned, parents really should learn how to protect their kids. The first step is knowledge. Again, I would not suggest ruling with an iron fist, but being aware of what your kids are doing is a major step in keeping them safe.

Let’s disect the incident, from a clinical point of view, and see what could have been done differently.

1) The 14 year old girl in question has a mobile phone - Teach your kids how to use a phone, and how to properly protect themselves. Since I am betting she is not paying for the phone herself, you would have access to all her calls. Use this power, but use it wisely. If the girl had understood more about proper communication skills, she would have been better prepared for online predators.

2) The girl met someone on the Internet and arranged to meet them - Did your parents ever ask you “Where are you going?” and “Do you go to school with him?”. I am sorry for sounding so rude, but she’s only 14. Letting her go out on a date with someone may be ok, but not knowing the who, what, where, when, why and how is unforgivable.

3) She has a MySpace page - Did the parents know about this? Did they read it to see what she had posted? It is not MySpace.com’s responsibility to verify everyting your kid writes, nor can they. As a parent, you should know what’s on that page, and talk to your kids about it.

4) The lawsuit is getting international coverage - This seems like a clever plot by the lawfirm to get some money from somewhere. (MySpace announces new plan, signs a sealed settlement and avoids getting copcat suites all over the world). If you’re parents would use a private incident for financial gain, you may not have even stood a chance.

I know the fourth point is harsh, but I cannot forgive someone who would put financial gain above their own childs well being. Do they really think the money will make up for having her story told internationally? (And do they think that someone won’t find out who she is?) Or are they counting on the numerous talk show visits they make to talk about the evils of MySpace? (All at a nomial fee). Whatever the case, I find it unforgivable.

If you take one thing from this arcticle, please let it be that we need to help our kids. The best thing we could do for them is be their parents. It is not going to be easy, but I am sure, in the long run, that our kids will be better people in the end.

A federal judge dismissed a case brought against MySpace. They plan to appeal, but for the moment, justice is done!

Borat has been relased on DVD. I haven’t laughed that hard, or been that disgusted, by a movie in quite some time. Spoilers abound in this blog, but I also wanted to ask the question: Why can’t we laugh at ourselves?

First, let me say, if naked men wrestling offends you, Borat is not the movie for you. If jokes about ethnicity or sexuality or wizards sleeves offend, run the other way. Also, if you have a weak stomach you may want to think twice about the hotel room scene. But if you’re the type of person who loves to laugh (and you’re reading my blog, so you must be) then run out right now and rent Borat! (I mean it, come back to finish this later, go right now, the movie is only 84 minutes long, watch it, then we can laugh and be sickened together).

There were times I nearly woke up Max I was laughing so loud. There were also a few times I thought I might vomit (A large fat man sitting naked on anyones face does it to me everytime). Seeing Alan Keyes expaling that the man who tried to put a rubber fist in Borat’s anus may have been homosexual brought me to tears. The acting in this movie is seocnd to none. (I know what you must be thinking: ‘Acting? What Acting?’ but anyone who can do this and keep a straight face, all the while pretending to be Borat, has got to be one of the best actors in the world). I don’t recommended it for anyone’s parents (ok, maybe Scoob’s dad) but I do think it is a great movie for our generation.

Which finally brings me to my point. After hearing all the lawsuits that were launched due to this movie, it makes me wonder why we can’t laugh at ourselves anymore. Pam Anderson can laugh at herself (She was a great surprise in the movie). Sacha Baron Cohen can laugh at himself (I again think back to naked fat man sitting on his head) so why can’t the colleges boys, who got a little drunk and acted a little ignorant? Maybe it’s just a cheap play for some quick cash. Maybe it’s a fast talking lawyer, like the one representing the Romanian villagers, you know the case, it was tossed out becuase the calim was too vague.

Look, people, sure we all do stupid things, and it would be better if it wasn’t filmed for the world to see. But you did, and we laughed. No one in the film was as big an idiot as Borat, and no one came close to doing the things he did. So get over it, and laugh. Show that Americans have a sense of humor. The world will be better for it.

After much anticipation, Microsoft’s latest version of Windows, Vista, has hit the marketplace. Join me on an ever increasingly painful journey as we take a look at the new OS, and what you can do to avoid the same mistakes I made. (This article carries the subtitle “Hey ATI/AMD, blow it out your ***!)

I love technology. I am a big giant nerd and proud of it. When I heard that Microsoft was working hard on making the new version of Windows more spectacular than ever before, I couldn’t wait. I participated in beta testing (which is another story all together, as the first beta’s supported my hardware, then the later ones did not, leaving me with a machine I needed to rebuild). When it was officially released, I loaded it on both a home system, and a work system for testing (I have an MSDN license to support my need to play). What happened next is a tale of pain and suffering, and arrogance (yeah, I’m talking to you ATI). Let us begin with the install, the part that was actually fairly painless.

Vista has a much cleaner install than previous versions. It was actually a pleasure to install (as long as the hardware supported it). I have tested the install on several platforms, and again with the exception of slightly older hardware, it was clean and easy. So kudos to MS for doing the install right.

Now, on to the painful part. On the test system at work, there are no tools to manage Exchange servers that function with Vista, and the Microsoft solution is to Terminal Server (yes you heard correct boys and girls) into a server with the tools on it. Arrogance, thy name is Microsoft. How you could release a product labelled business and not support business tools is beyond me. Even the Active Directory tools require voodo magic to make them work. Very frustrating.

On the home system, things are working fairly well, with one giant problem. My ATI All-in-Wonder 2006 AGP edition is the best graphics card I’ve ever used, but Vista doesn’t support the capture functions. Not at all. No tv tuner functions either. I conside this to be a serious issue. I am stuck using my old, slow machine with the 8500DV card in the event of video editing. Not a good solution. And the card is Vista compatible! (beacuse it meets the DirectX 9 spec, not because you can actually use it). I have worked with ATI, and get a “Mid-2007″ answer for when drivers will be available (I also get a “no scheduled release date” for beta or alpha versions, which frightens me since we are almost at “mid-2007″) So move over Microsoft, ATi gets the arrogance award here. (Although I wonder if MS used a little muscle to get them to roll over and beg for the Vista label for all there DirectX 9 cards.)

And now on to the much heralded Vista features.

Yeah, that was a short paragraph. It’s like going from Windows 95 to Windows 98. All the enhanced features are in device and media support. Without the devices (capture cards, TV Tuners, DVD, HD-DVD or Blu-Ray drives) the OS does very little to impress (The sidebar is neat, but nothing to make me say wow). Now I will be the first to admit that the OS really shouldn’t do much, that’s what applications are for, but the ad campaign for Vista will leave a whole lot of people feeling left out, wonderinf “Where is my wow?”. I can picutre users shaking their Vista boxes looking for the missing wow, and Microsoft sitting back and wondering why it isn’t a giant success.

Don’t get me wrong, after learing to live with a few limitations, I think Vista is ok. But with the huge memory requirement and limited backward support, it’s just not worth it.

Why do Americans (of every generation) feel the need to pitch America as our land only?

America, you have problems. While some of them are things that we will work through, one problem shines above all else. We like to be an exclusive club, and once you are a member, we want to keep anyone who isn’t us out.

It has always been this way, everywhere to be fair. People have always feared outsiders. But that’s what makes America different, and better. We embraced (in our own special way) people from all different countries. Sure, we may have treated them poorly at first, but they grew on us and eventually integrated into the rest of society.

So it really bruns my bottom (yeah, I said burns my bottom) to think that supposedly educated people are debating about immigration. It also blows my mind how diificult it is to become an American (Reveiw the citizenship test online, I bet most of you “Keep them out” people would fail it).

But that’s just the start to my rant. We always assume that when we are talking immigration (illegal or otherwise) we are referring to people sneaking in to our country, then taking jobs away from hard working citizens, often under the table. Ok, firstly, why should anyone have ot snaek into the United Sates of America? We should welcome people with open arms (and a secure process, but what we have now is ridiculous). And secondly, how do they afford to stay? Because people are hiring them to do work at rates that we normal Americans wouldn’t touch.

Sure, you say, all that does is drive the wages for honest Americans down. But I have news for you, we need to seriously evaluate what our infrastrucutre can support before we end up in chaos.

Ok, that may be a little too much, so let me explain it the long way.

We want to be paid like rock stars and buy products at Wal-Mart prices. We keep asking for more more more at less cost to us. Problem with this is there is a breaking point. Companies can’t provide benefits and higher salaries while at the same time offering their goods and services at cut rates. This economic model is a recipe for disaster.

But we are the “entitled” generation (I used to refer to us as the Oprah generation, referring to the programs that taught us how to live life for us, to take me time, but Oprah isn’t the only culprit). We think, by and large, that we are “owed” certain things. It’s time we remembered one simple truth: We are owed nothing. Everything we have we need to work for, and work hard. Life is a struggle, and we need to be ever vigilant.

If we can’t accept that simple truth, America is doomed to become a closed bordered society with a failing economy. And I, for one, will shout my message from the rooftops before I let that happen.

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