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May 2000
Tuesday, May 16, 2000 Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle brought the Senate to a standstill today, in a series of convoluted maneuvers intended to force a symbolic vote Wednesday on gun control. With Sunday's ''million mom march'' fresh in everyone's mind, Daschle (D-SD) struck a deal with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. "The Republican amendment stresses tougher enforcement and prosecution of gun-related crime. It also restates the right of a law-abiding U.S. citizen to own a gun." [Reuters] Physicist Leonard Reiffel revealed today that the U.S. had considered staging a spectacular nuclear explosion on the moon during the height of the Cold War. The classified project, code-named ''A119'' fortunately faded away into oblivion. 3M nixes Scotchgard. The announcement followed test results which show that component chemicals linger in the environment (and in humans) for years. Although 3M deems the products safe, it is taking a proactive approach, with particular emphasis on avoiding lingering chemicals in the environment. 3M's announcement was applauded by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Study shows that kids are willing to give out personal family information in exchange for gifts when visiting web sites. Nearly half of parents surveyed indicated they were not aware that web sites gather information on users. Japan's new prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, apparently has a habit of saying the wrong thing, his latest faux pas being a reference to Japan as "a divine country with the emperor at its center." Doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles have been shamed by its chief of staff into attending handwriting classes. The classes follow a growing concern that illegible prescriptions and orders pose a real threat to patient safety. The Albuquerque Journal reports this morning that over one-quarter of Los Alamos National Laboratory land has burned, more than 20 times the amount reported earlier. Radiation levels in the area are three times normal. However, this is felt to be likely due to the combustion of massive amounts of trees and vegetation; similar or higher levels were measured near Ruidoso, far to the south, in the aftermath of that fire. Highly specific test results are pending. Further, officials are concerned over the likelihood of summer rains washing through burned areas on LANL land, possibly releasing radioactive waste and residue from various storage and burial sites. The article continues, "The nuclear-weapons lab could experience unprecedented gushes of runoff across waste-burial sites and canyon bottoms laden with radioactive particles." There is no mention of what implications this might pose for ground water and/or the Rio Grande. Across the Pond: Frustrated with the "revolving door" justice system and faced with a backlash over the recent murder conviction of Tony Martin [see April 29]. for defending his home against burglars, British Home Secretary Jack Straw proposes ''Day prison'' plan for repeat offenders. Conservative Ann Widdecombe blasted Straw's proposals as "mad," stating "You cannot put people in jail during the working day and release them at night and not expect an upward impact on crime." British lawmakers appear determined to outdo each other as to who is more tough on crime. There has been some discussion of repealing the double jeopardy laws, further evidence of mounting frustration with out-of-control crime. Monday, May 15, 2000 Reuters: "The United Nations publicly rebuked the United States Monday over brutality in its prisons and called for an end to chain gangs and to the use of electro-shock belts for restraining inmates." Such harsh criticism by the international body is usually reserved for countries such as China. "Washington says torture is prohibited by law in the United States and categorically denounced as a matter of policy and as a tool of state authority, but admits its record is not perfect." Microsoft will issue a patch to its Outlook mail program in an effort to prevent recurrences of the "Lovebug" worm nightmare. Well, better late than never, I always say. ;-) The Washington Post reported Friday that Carlos Ghigliotti, 42, the Waco investigation thermal imaging expert who had been found dead under suspicious circumstances, died of natural causes. "Laurel police said yesterday that the medical examiner determined that the cause of death was a heart attack brought on by arteriosclerosis" and that further investigation into his death was terminated. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that Congress had exceeded its authority in passing a law allowing rape and domestic-violence victims to sue in federal court. The Los Alamos fire consumes historic A-bomb complex. On the upside, residents were allowed to return to their homes today. Sunday, May 14, 2000 Salon: ''Sisters'' Take on Mothers. The Second Amendment Sisters ''was formed solely in reaction to Sunday's Million Mom March, the warm-and-fuzzy, superearnest Mother's Day rally on the National Mall....'' Their web site eschews the pink ribbons growing out of gun barrels and deals with practical issues of self-defense. However, their numbers were dwarfed today by the MegaMoms. President Clinton encouraged the anti-gun demonstrators today, as did first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who again evoked her overused "for the children" refrain. Today's the day! The Misguided MegaMom March in Washington for Victim Disarmament. It should be interesting. Congratulations to Reuters for finally running a piece on gun control that actually cites some basis for the reported number of annual gun-related deaths (from the Centers for Disease Control). That study is hotly contested. (Also see Juvenile Murders: Guns Least of It, from the Christian Science Monitor.) While they're in Washington, perhaps the million moms will petition Congress to pass federal legislation regulating swimming pools and motor vehicles -- two of the biggest killers of kids in the U.S. Perhaps we can also have federal legislation which will prevent yuppie moms from driving their SUVs (with kids on board) at twice the legal speed limit while talking on their cell phones (something I saw daily when I lived in Southern California). Isn't there a constitutional amendment guaranteeing moms the right to endanger their kids while driving? Or one that guarantees their rights to have the family doctor pump Johnny full of Prozac because he's depressed? Or perhaps we can have federal legislation mandating surveillance devices in our homes, since, after all, most violent deaths of children are at the hands of a parent or relative. Let's ask Mr. Bill about that. Youth violent crime is decreasing. The number one killer? Poverty. Let's ban poverty. I'm serious. In any case, we can all rest assured that the demonstrators will not be pepper-sprayed, beaten, or rousted off the sidewalk by Secret Service agents while praying; after all, this agenda is politically correct. The moms want more and stricter gun legislation. Hey, moms, did you know that it's (virtually) illegal to own a handgun in Washington, D.C.? The murder rate in D.C. is eight times the national rate. How much stricter can gun laws be? It certainly didn't stop some punk kid from shooting up a bunch of people at the National Zoo recently. Will federal legislation requiring gun registration prevent criminals and gang members from obtaining guns? Not likely. Instead, how about asking the administration to seriously enforce the existing dozens of gun laws? How about making an effort to keep violent offenders incarcerated, instead of clogging up our overflowing jails with minor drug offenders? Instead of running to Washington for help in subverting the Constitution, let's have a national day of No Violent TV Programming, followed by a day of Supervised Computer Game Use and a day of No Meds for Johnny. Meantime, congratulations to the media for doing a really fine job of molding public opinion on this issue. You will surely be rewarded by your handlers. After the federal nanny-cams have been installed, the swimming pools have been banned, the SUVs and cell phones have been impounded, and it is illegal for you to defend yourself or your home, remember your words: "Enslave us, but feed us." Saturday, May 13, 2000 From the "Now I've seen everything" department: Mr. Cataract is gone as of yesterday morning. Wow! It's like when the guys used to clean your windshield at the gas station, only better! :-) Los Alamos homeowners are able to learn, for the first time, whether their homes burned or were spared. The fire continues to grow, but at a slower pace. A break in the winds Friday allowed a full aerial assault in the area of the Los Alamos national laboratory. Lucky dog! Larry Ross will never be called a "weiner dude." Too bad half goes to taxes, but what the heck. George W. Bush will distribute free trigger locks in Texas, announced just in time for Sunday's Million Mom March. Cool timing, George! Meantime, President Clinton put his foot in it during a press conference in which he briefly tangled with Susan Howard of the NRA; and Vice President Gore seemd confused why the Bushies think he ever belonged to the NRA. Thursday, May 11, 2000 Salon: "...Microsoft is attempting to co-opt a popular public technology and, after having been confronted about that, is attempting to control the transmission of information revealing its actions." In this case, Microsoft has allegedly co-opted parts of Kerberos, an open-source (free) authentication protocol for Unix systems, modified it so that it will not work with Unix systems, and made it proprietary. (This is innovation?) The open-source programming community is indignant, and has posted parts of the code and various work-arounds to the Microsoft version. Microsoft, in turn, is demanding that this information be removed from the Slashdot web site, claiming copyright violation. The final report has been issued on the simulation of the Waco siege, and, as noted earlier (see May 1), it states that the FBI at no time fired on the Branch Davidians. Deputy FBI Director Thomas Pickard says that the analysis by British firm Vector Data Systems totally vindciates the FBI. Jim Brannon, an attorney representing survivors and relatives of the Branch Davidians, claims that Vector Data's analysis is "fatally flawed," alleging either total incompetence or intentional sabotage. There is still no word on the autopsy results in the suspicious death of Carlos Ghigliotti, the thermal-imaging expert who had concluded that the FBI had indeed fired on the Branch Davidian compound.
More coverage and photos at CNN. Wednesday, May 10, 2000
Compounding the Los Alamos blaze is humidity in the 10-11% range with the return of high winds. The Wild Turkey Bourbon warehouse in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, caught fire, sending a stream of burning bourbon down a gully into the Kentucky River. Flames shot 50 feet into the air, and bourbon washed into the city's water source, forcing closure of its water treatment plant. Well, this has turned into an unintended four-day hiatus. I've been banging my head against the keyboard trying to figure out some script-related issues, getting psyched up for eye surgery, nursing a broken toe, and trying to stay in the loop with the horse training. After all the big flurry over the ILOVEYOU worm, there were a few noteworthy items that got overlooked. Reuters reports Violent crime fell sharply in 1999 according to the FBI. One would never infer this from the evening news; but, as we all know, splatter sells airtime. The Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab (northeast of Santa Fe, and far to the north of us) is closed due to an out-of-control brush fire.
Arianna Huffington says that the White House conference on teens is essentially anemic and only addresses concerns of middle-class white kids, ignoring 13.5 million at-risk kids. A presidential advisory panel is highly critical of the CIA's investigation regarding its former director John M. Deutch, who came under scrutiny for having top-secret data on his home computers, which were also connected to the Internet. In February, Deutch had apologized for his bad judgment. It appeared at that time that he would suffer only a slap on the wrist, compared to nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, who remains in solitary confinement in a Santa Fe jail for having taken data home from the Los Alamos national lab. Friday, May 05, 2000 Federal Computer Week: Y2K hindered White House e-mail fix: "Hundreds of thousands of e-mail messages were lost because of glitches in the White Houseís Mail2 server between 1996 and 1998. But reconstruction of the records management system that will be used to recover the lost e-mail was put on hold last year to deal with Year 2000 compliance, a presidential aide said Wednesday." This has left Congress and the Justice Department "without e-mail evidence in matters related to campaign finance, 'Filegate' and the Monica Lewinsky sex-and-perjury scandal." How unfortunate, and how convenient. Reuters: "A British judge rekindled a national debate about self-defense when he said a man who beat an intruder with a baseball bat used reasonable force, newspapers reported Friday. The judge's ruling followed widespread condemnation of a life jail sentence imposed on British farmer Tony Martin after he shot and killed a teenage burglar." [See April 29.] San Jose Mercury News: "At least five copycat variations [of the ILOVEYOU worm] were spreading today, according to computer security company F-Secure Corp. in San Jose, Calif. One version comes with an attachment labeled ``Very Funny,'' while another arrives as confirmation that the recipient's credit card has been charged $326.92 for a Mother's Day ``diamond special,'' urging the reader to click on an attachment to print the invoice. Opening either attachment releases the bug." Microsoft (finally) has information on the VBS/Loveletter virus on their web site. There is no mention of Outlook Express as the "retransmittal" agent, only Outlook (which comes with Microsoft Office), so I stand corrected on my earlier statement. Microsoft is tap-dancing on this one. From the page above: "Itís important to note that the virus payload cannot run by itself. In order for it to run, the recipient must open the mail, launch the payload by double-clicking on it, and answer 'yes' to a dialogue that warns of the dangers of running untrusted programs." So, although MS makes an operating system that lets script code from anywhere run with full privileges, that's really OK, and it's those darned users' fault for ignoring the warnings. I can't speak for everyone else, but I don't recall seeing huge, glaring warnings the last time I looked at an e-mail attachment. The MS announcement, like the NY Times article, still insists that a huge safeguard is "Never run an executable from someone you donít know." The statement is literally true (one should not be running stuff from unknown sources); but as noted earlier, the malicious e-mails in question have already come from someone you know, albeit without their knowledge. MS further recommends having a good-quality virus-scanning program and always keeping it updated. Again, in principle, this is quite true. However, given the ease with which "script kiddies" can put together a virus or worm to disable a Windows system, it is a little unlikely that there will always be a virus definition (the code that lets your anti-virus program "clean house") available ahead of time. In reviewing the CERT advisory, there is still only specific reference to "Outlook", not "Outlook Express." This is important in relation to further propagation of the trojan to addresses in one's own Address Book. However, if you have received the trojan e-mail and have opened the attachment, your own system may be at risk, regardless of your machine being hijacked to propagate the trojan. According to the CERT advisory, "Windows Scripting Host" must be running in order for the trojan to damage your files. WSH is found on Windows 95 and 98 systems updated to Internet Explorer 5. Check here for instructions on how to disable Windows Scripting Host. CNET has a good article that explains how the "ILOVEYOU" virus/worm works. A techie friend wrote to me last night and indicated this was only a problem with Outlook, not with Outlook Express. I do not believe that is the case, after reading the technical explanation at CNET (above). One of the key links for the virus/worm to succeed is the Windows Address Book, which is used, to the best of my knowledge, by both Outlook and Outlook Express. If I find this to be otherwise, I'll certainly say so. A New York Times article, cited on today's Scripting News, erroneously states "The best way to avoid infection, experts advised, is not to open e-mail attachments from unknown sources.." Since ILOVEYOU hijacks a system's Windows Address Book, recipients will often receive mail from friends or associates. Fox Mulder would say, "Trust no one." The real issue is twofold: educating users, and the existence of gaping security holes in the world's most widely used operating system. Microsoft, as noted by one pundit this morning, is in denial, saying that viruses can be written to affect any operating system. Yeah, so? Thursday, May 04, 2000 Reuters: Presidential Race in Firefight Over Guns. The Bush and Gore camps are at it again, with the Democrats portraying Bush as a puppet of the gun lobby, and the Republicans portraing Gore as, well Gore. The article, like every other major media piece, makes this typical erroneous, unsubstantiated statement: "In a country where 90 people die every day due to gun violence -- 12 of them children -- ...." Doing the math, this suggests that over 4,000 children are killed by guns annually in the U.S.; the number is actually closer to 200-300, according to the National Safety Council, far fewer than are killed by drowning, auto accidents, or child abuse homicide by a parent or caregiver. The latter figure includes a significant number of gun deaths related to criminal gang activity and drug dealing, hardly the realm of accidental death trumpeted by gun control advocates. David B. Kopel's 1993 monograph Children and Guns: Sensible Solutions offers an unemotional analysis of what is really going on with respect to gun deaths involving minors in the U.S., and offers constructive potential solutions. I am not particularly a big fan of the National Rifle Association (NRA), but I am tired of hearing them referred to as the "death lobby." Many of our politicians and much of the media is creating, in fact, a "victim disarmament lobby," sweeping away citizens' rights to self-defense with the red herring of gun control (how's that for mixing a metaphor!). For those of you who can't stomach the NRA, please visit Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Theirs is an excellent and informative web site. Reuters: U.S. Evicts Protesters from Vieques Base. "In Washington, Attorney General Janet Reno said the government would not file charges against any protesters, unless they were violent or tried to re-enter the base." CNN: 'ILOVEYOU' computer bug bites hard, spreads fast, affecting business and government systems worldwide using Microsoft's Outlook. "The malicious code is a hybrid virus and worm. Like the Melissa and Explore.Zip worms, it propagates itself through networks -- in this case, e-mail. But unlike those two, it also destroys and replicates itself by manipulating files on a user's hard drive, like a traditional virus." According to Reuters, "a Pentagon office that compiles news clipping sent the ''ILOVEYOU'' message to its mailing, including U.S. security agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency, Civil Air Patrol, General Accounting Office, military commands and the FBI-led National Infrastructure Protection Center." Ooooops! Writing for ABCNEWS.com in June, 1999, Mark Anderson discusses a recent Trojan horse, Win32.PrettyPark: "[I]t then connects to an Internet Relay Chat and sends (to an unknown recipient) local system settings, passwords, system configuration, lists of disks, directory information, Internet access phone numbers and passwords, remote access service logins and passwords, and ICQ user data. But wait, thereís still more Ö PrettyPark also is able to send and receive files, run and delete them, and create and delete directories." Anderson speculates that this new breed of viruses, Trojans and worms may no longer be the handiwork of kids, but may in fact be sponsored by governments and/or corporations. Wednesday, May 03, 2000
The USS Nashville and the USS Bataan are offshore, reportedly carrying about 1,000 Marines, whose job would be to assist Federal Agents in expelling the protesters. Protest leader Robert Rabin has stated that they will submit peacefully if there is a raid. Tuesday, May 02, 2000 NASA says no doomsday is in store from this Friday's planetary alignment. Well, that's a relief! Eight major bodies in the solar system, including Earth, will be aligned nearly in a straight line. David B. Kopel: The Supreme Court's Thirty-Five Other Gun Cases, subtitled "What the Supreme Court Has Said about the Second Amendment." This is a draft of an article for the St. Louis University Law Review. (I cannot find a date for this paper.) I found it fascinating, although incredibly long (over 300 footnotes), since many people are of the mistaken opinion that the Supreme Court has had little to say about the Second Amendment and the matter of the right to bear arms. The Second Amendment Law Library is quite a bit easier to navigate. Two interesting "I Spy" pieces from CNN yesterday -- The Feds May be Reading Your Mail, which talks about the Ecehelon Project; and U.K. Plan to Open Spy Center Draws Criticism. Monday, May 01, 2000 Washington Post: Carlos Ghigliotti, who had been retained by a U.S. House committee to help investigate the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., was found dead in Laurel under unexplained circumstances [Friday]." He had been dead for approximately two weeks. Mr. Ghigliotti, an expert in thermal imaging and videotape, had concluded in October, 1999, that the FBI had fired shots into the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Subsequently, British firm Vector Data was hired by the federal court to recreate the shooting and do its own technical analysis of infrared footage of the simulation. Vector Data concluded that the bright flashes shown on 1993 infrared film of the Waco standoff exonerated the FBI. Of interest, Michael Caddell, the lead attorney in the wrongful death suit resulting from the Waco incident, had recently contacted Ghigliotti and wished to retain him. Mr. Caddell stated that two weeks ago he contacted Waco Special Counsel John C. Danforth, urging Mr. Danforth to interview Ghigliotti immediately. Autopsy results are expected later this week. (The site was on virtual vacation for the latter half of May.) |
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