Blogging Update

It's been a little while since I've updated my blog, and even though it's old news by now, I thought I'd let everyone know that I'm no longer part of linuxworldnet.com. I enjoyed my time blogging there, but I'm sure everyone's noticed that I have a hard enough time keeping up with just this blog, let along three. But it's not all bad news. Martin, aka dadexter, has picked up Minimum Linux, and I'm excited to see where he takes it. And even though there is no official posting to introduce himself, Linux Security has a new contact listed in the "About" section. I'm excited to see where that one goes as well.

To Jon, I enjoyed it while it lasted! I wish I could have stayed longer, but the network deserves more than I felt I could give. By stepping aside, I feel like I'm giving the network a better chance than if I stuck around. Good luck with everything you do! And that goes for my former compatriots over on Linux World Net as well :)

A Voice Within: A message from Kaye

Today, there's a new post on A Voice Within:

Kaye:

Hello to all. This message is from Kaye, Frank's wife. I am sorry to inform you that Frank passed away last night.

Waiting...

The other day, I ran across a blog by a gentleman named Frank, titled A Voice Within. It really struck a chord with me, because I hear the voice too, telling me to wait. I have offered Frank to wait with him until we are instructed otherwise, because I am waiting either way. But maybe the voice is more clear to him than it is to me, and he'll know what needs done before I do. In the meantime, I wait...

Thanks, Ohio LinuxFest!

I took the weekend off from cassieiswatching to spend some time with friends and attend the Ohio LinuxFest and just wanted to thank them for the great time they provided on Saturday. I also wanted to thank them for adding me to the blogroll on their blog. I didn't ask for them to do this, nor did they notify my. And all it cost me was doing what any Linux geek with a blog should have done: added a banner for the fest!

I'll be writing more about the fest over the next couple of weeks, I'm sure, but I'll be doing most of those posts over on Linux World Net.

YouTube - CassieIsWatching

I apologize for not posting in awhile. I've been a bit busy, and in my spare time I've been caught up in the whole LonelyGirl15/CassieIsWatching thing on YouTube. I didn't really get caught up in it until CassieIsWatching, because that's when it started getting interesting. Not sure where it'll lead, but I'd like to think it's a huge Alternate Reality Game. Coincidentally, I just picked up a copy of Beyond Reality: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming [affiliate link] when all of this started. Good book so far! And if you're watching, Cassie, I'm ready!

More wiretapping goodness...

It's crap like this that really ticks me off, and prompts essays like my last one.

When did we lose the cold war?

When I was growing up during the 70's and 80's, we had one enemy: "The Soviets." It wasn't that we were at war with them, but we were taught to hate the enemy none-the-less. In a work of fiction, for instance televised wrestling, if you needed an enemy, you put a mask on him and wrote U.S.S.R. (or, for those who realized USSR was an English translation, CCCP) on his trunks. After all, everyone knew that the Soviets were evil. Even when we began to know better, we were still taught that their way of life was evil. This is what the cold war was about, as I'm sure that the children of the USSR were taught the same thing about us. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed is 1991, it appeared that our way of life had won. We would no longer have to worry about having to show our papers when traveling domestically.

One September morning 10 years later, with one terrorist act that was, statistically, an anomaly, and all of those cold war fears were realized. Our enemy is no longer the Soviet in the mask with USSR or CCCP on his wresting trunks, but the result is the same. As a result of the 9/11 attacks, we can no longer travel domestically, at least by air, without showing "our papers" in the form of a photo ID. We can no longer show up at an airport and pay cash for the next ticket to wherever our hearts desire. And even when we buy our tickets in advance, we are subjected to harassment by random KGB - err, TSA - agents.

Since these horrible events five years ago, our rights have been increasingly stripped. Once again, we are fighting a cold war, but this time it is with our own government. Our "official" stance is still that we do not negotiate with terrorists. Apparently, this is taken to mean, by the current administration at least, that we give them everything they want. By declaring "war on terror" and taking away our rights, our government has given the war to the terrorists. By invading Iraq and taking out the leader of a sovereign nation, our government has destabilized an entire region. This lack of stability plays into the hands of the terrorists because they can legitimately blame us for this problem and easily recruit new members.

Sadly, the cold war was lost five years ago, with the events following 9/11, ten years after it had ended. We have lost it as much to our own government as to the terrorists who have attacked us. Today, I mourn the loss of those who died, but I also mourn the loss of our freedoms.