Bill Whittle doses out some painful truth here. The most important point is made around 5:50 mark:
PJTV: Afterburner with Bill Whittle — Unserious People
We Texans and TAG sponsored a training day called Catalyst 730 in Austin yesterday. One of the afternoon panelists said this:
you don’t need to be angry,
you don’t need to feel powerless,
you just need to participate
I agree. A government by the people in the name of liberty only functions correctly if decent people are actively involved.
I recently converted some of my personal folders (like MyDocuments) to reside within an encrypted file. Besides the obvious benefit of keeping the information in that folder more private, another reason was so I can take the contents of the folders with me anywhere (on a external USB drive) and not have to worry about what would happen if I lost the drive or what other people would see if they borrow the drive. (In the un-encrypted state, the folder looks like a big file on the drive full of gobbledgook) Another advantage is that if the drive is stolen, they won’t have all my personal documents, they would just have some encrypted files that are meaningless. Since the whole folder is housed within one file, copying, syncing, and backups are easy too.
When TrueCrypt is running, the encrypted folders work just like regular folders, you can copy to/from etc. When you deactivate TrueCrypt, all you see is the encrypted file. (and it can be configured to make that hidden as well) The program runs on Linux, Windoze, and Mac and is open source.
As an additional measure of safety, the folders can be encrypted with both a password and a key file. This lets you add an extra layer of protection: Even if your password is known, the folder can’t be decrypted unless the physical key file is present.
If you ever want to keep your electronic messages very private, using something called a ‘public-key cryptography’ is a good way to do it. The common implementation of this method is known as PGP, which stands for “pretty good privacy”. (it is better than just pretty good, but the original developer didn’t want to be over confident) The open source community has created the same functionality in their GnuPG (just GPG – GNU Privacy Guard) project. How it actually works is interesting (even though I don’t fully understand the nuts and bolts of it). It uses a two-part ‘key’. Part one of the key is yours only, and is to be kept safe and secure so only you can access it. It is called your private key. Part two of the key is published and given to anyone wishing to exchange messages with you. (they have a two-part key also)
The process to send an encrypted message to someone is:
To decode an encrypted message that someone sent to you:
Read more at Gnu Privacy Guard (GnuPG) Mini Howto.
Use Brian Gallimore’s public key to send me messages!
One of my personal goals is to teach myself how to program in java. After falling asleep while reading tutorials, I clicked on youtube and then found Bucky Robert’s java tutorials. They are good. After going through the first 18, I clicked on his website thenewboston.org, and read this on the ‘about’ page:
I soon realized that these videos were something more than just another cat video on YouTube. They were a gateway to a higher education, for free. While Universities and Corporations were charging like crazy for people to receive an education, people could come and watch my videos and get the same information for no cost at all. I decided that this is the way it would be. An education should be free for everyone who desires one. It should not be a business. And quickly, that became my goal.
So, while most assholes who declare ‘education should be free’ really mean someone else should pay for a the bloated over-priced scam that is the state-run higher education system, this guy is actually doing it. He is educating people for free, at his own expense! Based on his youtube channel‘s stats, I’d say he is doing a great job of it too!
Hats off and many thanks to Bucky. This type of action is the future. Individuals providing, for free or near-free, what huge organizations provide for huge piles of money. Doing it better, more efficiently, and more effectively. Here is my favorite part: He is doing it because he thinks it is the right thing to do, and (hopefully) he is making a living teaching what he loves to others. By the way, rah rah free Internet (as in freedom). Let’s keep it that way!
“I think that might be the number 1 reason for the drug laws. …not for high prices for some two-bit drug dealer, as much as to raise the funds necessary for governments to illegal things. …The sooner we get rid of our drug laws, the sooner this would end.” -Ron Paul
You Might be a Redneck Statist if… (more at facebook.com/StatistSlayers)
I guess my love affair with Bill Whittle is now over. He is great at speaking and conveying messages. He is right about almost everything almost every time. Except that neocon thing. Listen to his great speech below. So many great points!
Now for the part I don’t agree with: He says if one of our people are killed, we should take out ‘an installation’. You know what the ‘eye for an eye’ theme in the bible is about? It is a lesson that punishment and retaliation should be of the same magnitude as the crime. Escalating the use of force in retaliation is against the teachings of the bible.
And of course the bigger question: Why are Americans getting killed oversees? Is it because we are helping poor? No. Teaching school to illiterate natives? No. Is it because we are supporting regimes and cartels to overthrow governments we don’t like? Yes. Is it because we are bombing the shit out of all kinds of things, which often include the death of women and children? Yes.
