The Valuation of Trust

October 23, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Thanks to +Edward Coles and +Merlina Sapphire for sharing this video. It is a good overview of the basics of money and financing. I used the video to launch a rousing discussion on Google+.

This is fundamental Econ 101 stuff. But it is great to see it explained so simply and understandably.
Nevertheless, the narrator makes a simplifying assumption: increases in the money supply gain their value from the existing money supply itself. This assumption is misstated. The value of newly created money is directly proportional to the trust that we place in the banking system and the measure of trust we place in the repayment of debts. When we stop trusting the system, we withdraw our funds and create a run on the banking establishment. And as we saw in the Great Depression, no bank could provide the funds required if all demand deposits were demanded.
So what is the #OccupyWallStreet movement? In my mind, it is an effort to diminish and/or destroy the trust that America has in its banking system. The threat of flagging trust in our system must be challenged. We must begin to trust each other to repay the debts that we owe. And we must trust our banks as institutional that we trust to fulfill the promises/contracts that we have made with them.

After submitting the above text for discussion on Google+, I got some very rousing debate on the issue of trust and the kinds of change that we should be advocating. Here was my response to one reader:

+Jonathan Xavier, I think we can all agree on the definition of the problem. Where we disagree is on the root cause of the problem and/or the solution that we would propose to address the inherent ills in the system.
At a macro level, the issues relate to a lack of trust. We do not trust the banks. And the banks don’t trust their customers. I know of many people that have simply walked away from the commitments that they made to bankers and their depositors. This is true of home mortgages as well as student loans. Any system that makes it simple to abandon promises is a flawed system. If you default on a loan, there should be penalties. But in today’s culture, walking away from your commitment to repay the people that have invested their savings in the bank is wholly unsatisfactory.
At the same time, our banks should not be treating us as a carcass from which they can nourish their bloated excesses. If you thought that current banking fees were unreasonable, just wait for transaction fees that are coming for ATM’s and for mobile phone transactions via NFC. The banking institutions exist as a public trust. And they should be held accountable for that position of trust.
But what are the causes of these troubles?
From my perspective, the challenge is not systemic but personal. We have lost our position as a moral authority in the world because we have failed to act in ethical and moral ways. We need to foster a culture where we work together – not separately. We need to act as communities – not collections of individuals. I need to honor my commitments and hold others to honoring the commitments that they have made to me.
But how do we foster a disciplined and moral personal life that can be replicated throughout out communities? Let’s deal with first things first. Hold yourself accountable for making moral decisions. This is not a question of legalities but of ethics. Our culture has become fascinated with “letter of the law” obedience. Instead, we need to hold ourselves to the “spirit of the law” in our lives.
As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord. And we will honor our commitments. And we will try to live intentional lives – not accidental lives. Let your every decision be something that you consider and decide. And make sure that your frame of reference is something beyond yourself. Too many of us live without a system of values. And then we are surprised when others don’t act compassionately or even honestly.
Our culture was based upon a shared view of ethics. And these ethics were personified in the Ten Commandments. [Note: I’m not advocating religious tests. I’m speaking of the Ten Commandments in their most basic and ethical sense.] If we hope to reclaim stability in times of transition, we must all be using the same moral compass as our guide.
Phew. I need to take a breath. Sorry for the screed. But I believe that in order to make substantive changes in our society, we need to address the root causes that are inherent in the system. BTW, I don’t know that we should impose this on one another until we enact it within our own lives. And as noted before, I believe that change starts within each heart. So I am covenanting (to myself and everyone who can read this) to live by a simple metric: WWJD.

I will be pondering this issue for a while as I think I have more to consider – especially as such conversations prompt deep thought over a protracted period of time. Here’s hoping that the musings and discussions will lead me to a deeper understanding of myself and my place in this society.
-Roo

The Egyptian Crisis Proves the Need for Anonymity

January 29, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

I had a very interesting conversation at work yesterday. Someone I work with asked me about the “cool tools” that I really believe in. After thinking long and hard about the question, I told him that I believe in freedom of speech and I believe in anonymity as a bulwark to ensure both the freedom of speech and the freedom of thought. He nodded his head at the blandishment. Then I told him about TOR (the onion router). After a few minutes, he asked for a URL. So I gladly pointed him to http://www.torproject.org.
Most of the time, I am greeted with crickets when I talk about TOR. In fact, most people recite the old rubric that if you have done nothing wrong, then you should have nothing to hide. While I often agree with this sentiment, I always cringe when I hear it. Why? Because Americans have a fundamental right to think and speak whatever is in our hearts and minds. But in some places, the definitions of right and wrong are horribly twisted. During times of great crisis, freedoms are routinely challenged. And that is exactly what is happening in Egypt today.
I am not informed enough to know whether President Hosni Mubarak is or is not a tyrant. He is unelected. And he has been the unelected leader since the death of Anwar Sadat (over thirty years ago). And he has suppressed speech – especially the speech of the extreme minorities (like the Muslim Brotherhood). Do I want a stable regime that is peaceful towards Israel to be replaced by some unknown group that may be hostile to peace? Absolutely not. But I can’t read the future. So I won’t comment on what I would like to see. Again, I am not familiar enough to pick “right” and “wrong” in a complex multinational struggle.
But I do know this: when freedom is challenged, geeks turn to technology. And there are geeks in Egypt that are turning toward TOR. When President Mubarak shut down cell phones, messages came from alternate sources. And when folk feared that their browsing and their postings would be monitored, they turned to the tools of anonymity.
TOR usage has skyrocketed. There are now four times as many people using TOR to ensure their anonymity. And the number of relays supporting these users has also skyrocketed (see below).
This spike in relays is across the globe. And geeks everywhere are bombarding Twitter and they are deluging Facebook. And folks are starting to march in America. I am so glad to see that people are engaged and active. I am not certain what outcome I want to see. But I do want to see freedom of speech and freedom of thought flourish in times of turmoil. So count me in.
-Roo

Why Use Tor?

December 19, 2010August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

So why should you use Tor?
That’s a good question. First, you need to know what Tor does. I find that simple descriptions are often the best. So here is my simple version of what Tor is: Tor is a means of tunneling specific messages (i.e., traffic) through an anonymous (and reasonably secure) network. Wikipedia describes it here.
Many people look at Tor and ask why is such a thing needed? Their questions presuppose that they trust the networks that they communicate across. Most folks think Tor is just for copyright violators, organized criminals or other unsavory netizens. But that is both too simplistic and too trusting. Tor is for anyone who needs to ensure that their communications across the network remain anonymous and/or secured.
Let’s consider a real-world example. There are many nations that do not allow for the Bible to even be carried . Further, many countries routinely persecute and prosecute people that publicly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the gospel cannot be silenced by mere mortals. There are men and women who have always been willing to share the Word of God regardless of the cost to themselves.
And throughout the world, tyrannical governments seek to squelch opposition by monitoring the communications of their citizens. Indeed, you could easily argue that the majority of people in the world are being “watched” by the very governments that should defend their liberties.
Like the early Christians in ancient Rome, there will always be those who stand for truth and justice rather than simply obey corrupt civil authorities. And in these nations, tools that help maintain the anonymity of persecuted citizens are very important tools indeed.
If you don’t believe that this was true for our nation, then ask yourself why so many of our founding fathers used pseudonyms for their writings. Indeed, even the authors of the Federalist papers used pseudonyms – although not just for the sake of anonymity.
-Roo

A Maze of Twisty Passages…

July 3, 2010August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

I am definitely an old school gamer. My son plays games like Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. But I started when games required thought and not just lightning-fast reflexes. And one of the very first computer games I remember was Colossal Cave. I first played it on an IBM S/370 that ran MVS and TSO (i.e., Time Sharing Option). But some of my most favorite memories of the game were when I played it on the Heathkit H89 PC that I soldered together with my own hands.
And there was one part of the game that always fascinated me: the maze of passages. Actually, there were two such mazes: one had twisty passages that were all alike and the other had twisty passages that were all different. And in these tunnels, you could either become lost forever or find the pirate’s treasure.
So what does this game have to do with anything? It’s simple: the use of tunnels can lead to frustration or it can lead to treasure. For today, I’m going to talk about tunnels that can be used for treasure.
Most of us know about one form of tunneling or another. Many people use (or know about) SSL tunnels and/or IPSec tunnels. These kinds of tunnels are commonly used by many folks who must use VPN technologies to access resources that are secured behind corporate firewalls. Most people have no real idea of what is going on “behind the scenes” when they use their corporate VPN’s. But the basic premise is simple: one kind of data that is commonly blocked can be “wrapped” within another kind of data that can be allowed to pass. Think of this as the knife in the birthday cake. The guards won’t allow the knife to be given to a prisoner. But the guards can be fooled if the real payload is hidden from sight.
Of course, this analogy is simplistic – and somewhat deceptive. Tunnels are not used just to hide nefarious objects from the prying eyes of the world. They are more commonly used to control the kinds of data that passes the sentry points in a system. Think of it this way: if the cargo hole in a ship is shaped like a square, then valid cargo must also be shaped to accommodate the size and shape of the square entryway.
For those who have a little more knowledge, there are other forms of tunnels that are commonplace. For example, SSH tunnels are de rigeur for most system administrators. SSH tunnels can be associated with commercial tools (like VanDyke’s Secure Shell or BitVise’s Tunnelier). But they can also be used with open and freely available tools (like sshd and PuTTY). I use SSH tunnels for so many things. SSH is used to secure my router. It is also used to securely access my home systems from any location on the Internet.
But amongst those who work with security for a living, there are many other forms of tunneling – some widespread, others obscure. For years, TOR (The Onion Router) has been used as a means of anonymous (and encrypted) browsing. And TOR has often been used with local proxies that ease the burden of tunnel configuration and workload separation. But recently, the use of TOR and local proxies has gotten a whole lot simpler. You can now downlod a single package that will install and configure a browser, a proxy and TOR onto a portable platform (i.e., a USB key). In this kind of configuration, you can insert a USB device into almost any system connected to almost any public hotspot. Once the browser is launched, you can commence anonymous and secure browsing of the Internet.
And these tools can now be combined with all sorts of other tunneling tools. For example, you could tunnel TOR traffic within SSH and then forward it across a DNS tunnel. This would allow you to bypass most content filters established on the networks to which you might be connected.
Is this cool technology? Most definitely it is. Can this technology be used for good things? Of course it can. Consider an evangelist within a repressive country. Such a person can connect and communicate with others within his country or with those who are outside his country.
But can this technology also be used for nefarious purposes? In candor, it certainly could be used for illegitimate purposes. But I think of these kinds of technologies in the same way that I think of freedom of speech. We must allow gross and unseemly speech if we want to have any freedom of speech. Otherwise, our speech (however comely and delightful it might be) could be considered objectionable – and hence, controllable.
So what should we do about the maze of twisty passages? In my narrow view, I must come down on the side of allowing such technologies. They can be used for good or “twisted” into unacceptable uses. Of course, the same thing is true about guns. They can similarly be used for unsavory purposes. But the protection of our liberties will lie in our ability to use tools that allow us to secure and protect individual liberties – even when this means that the state will have a more difficult time dealing with the criminals.
-Roo

Those Who Refuse To Learn From History

April 9, 2010August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Dear Senators,
One of the most important powers that our Founding Fathers vested into the Presidency was the power to establish and manage relationships with foreign powers. That power specifically includes the negotiation of treaties between our nation and foreign nations. But that power is not unlimited. Indeed, our Constitution specifically ensures that international treaties must be ratified by 2/3 of the Senate. This power ensures that the President cannot conduct foreign affairs without the overwhelming consent of the most deliberative body in our legislature. Just as importantly, the power of the Senate flows from the citizens of each state. Hence, all treaties must have the overwhelming approval of the states (and their representatives).
Given these facts, I implore you to carefully consider whether or not you will support the most recent nuclear arms treaties between the US and Russia. I have been a voting citizen for more than thirty (30) years. And in that time, we have lived under constant threat by foreign powers – including Russia. But throughout that time, we have been protected because our adversaries knew that we could and would use unimaginable force in response to direct attacks upon our nation. Indeed, our entire defense posture has been based upon the fact that our adversaries didn’t know if their actions might provoke an irrevocable response. The fear of such a response was the deterrent against direct hostile action.
However, this new treaty threatens the delicate balancing act that protects us. This treaty (and the policy delivered in association to the treaty) threaten us because we are going on record saying how and when we will respond. Indeed, the basis of the new policies seems to be that we will not respond (with our nuclear force) even in the face of chemical or biological assaults on our nation.
I’m a simple person. And if a bully knows you won’t respond to an assault, then that bully is more apt to assault you. Indeed, bullies (and tin-pot dictators) only respond to force and threats of force. In fact, most military scholars note that Europe might have avoided the Second World War altogether had European nations met the challenge of Adolph Hitler with force rather than weakness. Neville Chamberlain was wrong then. Let’s not try and repeat the mistakes that he made – especially when the possibility of unimaginable death tolls are a potential outcome. Look at what a small group of terrorists did to New York City and to the nation’s capital using two airplanes and several tanks of jet fuel. Consider the kind of civilian death toll that an emboldened terrorist group might be able to generate using NBC capabilities.
As a citizen who is counting upon the US government to protect myself and my family against all threats, I implore you to vote against this ill-advised treaty/policy.
Sincerely,
Lorin Olsen
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” 2 Corinthians 4:7

Contract With Americans + Fanning the Embers

November 23, 2009August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Re: Global warning – on recess, late to return to class

Lorin Olsen <cyclingroo@gmail.com>

Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 9:39 AM

To: <Addresses suppressed>

Joe,

You’re either congratulating me on my compositional skills or you are calling me a really old fart. Since I know that you are older than I am, I’ll assume the former and thank you for the honor! 😉
The initial steps are already underway. The “tea party” movement is an amazing outgrowth of the most recent election. And depending upon its long-term success, it might even be worth some of the idiocy we’ve seen thus far. It is especially important as it is not associated with any specific political party (though there are a whole lot of Republicans). But like the original “tea party” of Boston, the flagrant acts of those dressed like Indians gave way to the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution. So I see the current “tea party” movement as a means of lighting the fires of dissent – and encouraging all the people to look forward to what the future holds.
I don’t know if I’m ready to endorse a party or a platform. And I’m certainly not ready to form a party. But I am ready to endorse some radical ideas: our government should be of the people, by the people and for the people. Those citizens (and elected citizens) who act in violation of this principle (i.e., the Republicans and the Democrats) should be voted out of office. And I am very serious when I say that I will be voting every single incumbent out of office. I call it the TBO campaign.
And I think the people (not the Republican party) need to build a contract with their future employees. We need to lay out our terms & conditions for employment of our civil servants. And we need to ask any candidate (of any party) whether they will sign our “Contract With Americans” pledge. I want them to sign a document as we are going to hold them accountable to it. It will be their employment contract.
– The first article of the contract will be term limits. Every signer will agree to no more than eight years (or two terms in the case of the Senate).
– The second article will be a commitment to the national defense. This includes defending our country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We will defend our borders against illegal encroachment – and poaching of jobs.
– The third article will be strict fiscal discipline. This includes an agreement to balance the federal budget each and every year. If they want more money, they must obtain it first. The only exception to this rule will be exigencies required by the second article (i.e., defense).
– I’m toying with the idea of a fourth article (or a subordinated element of the third article) addressing taxation. In particular, we need a flat/fair tax – no exemptions, no deductions, no exclusions, no kidding.
So is this a good enough start? Do you want to be a charter signatory to the Contract With Americans pledge? Our side of the contract will be simple: we will vote for those who sign the pledge and we will vote against those who do not sign and/or break this pledge.
Who’s in?
Sincerely,
Lorin
On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 10:13 PM, Joe Bell <Address suppressed> wrote:

Lorin,
Are you sure you didn’t help Thomas with the Declaration wording back in ’76?
What are the initial steps/actions you’re considering?
<Name & phone numbers suppressed>
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” –Winston Churchill
Semper Fi
From: Lorin Olsen [mailto:cyclingroo@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2009 11:05 AM
To: <Addresses suppressed>
Cc: <Addresses suppressed>
Subject: Re: Global warning – on recess, late to return to class
Team,
I truly love this stuff. A group of thieves broke into someone’s email. And now, the global warming skeptics are all atwitter about the evidence that was released. Don’t get me wrong. I think that man-made global warming is a farce that was created in order to fuel the rapacious self-interest of the loony left. Like they don’t have enough power already???
But let’s not lionize criminals. Nor should we take everything they released at face value. There are those in the military-industrial complex that won’t be at the table if the Copenhagen crowd gets its way. So I’m just as leery about the skeptics as I am about the enthusiasts.
The thing that troubles me the most is that this whole debate is not about science. It is about the concentration of political power in the hands of individuals and corporations. Worse still, there are no “checks and balances” for the folks that are gaining power these days. Think Obama czars on steroids.
At this time, I am all about the American people demonstrating that we are in charge. It is now US vs. THEM. I’m ready to start working to form a conservative/populist movement. If they are an incumbent, they are part of the problem. And they need to go. Both parties have proven that they will suckle at the teat of privilege – and force us to pay for their dining pleasure. Every one of them needs to go. Who’s with me?
Sincerely,
Lorin
On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 10:51 AM, Irwin Kraus <Address suppressed> wrote:
Yes, this was in the MSM (Associated Press) today. Interesting.

From: <Address suppressed>
To: <Addresses suppressed>
Cc: <Addresses suppressed>
Sent: Sat Nov 21 21:55:02 2009
Subject: Re: Global warning – on recess, late to return to classJoe,I sent this out to Irwin today I thought it might be something you would enjoy if you missed it.Laird

HMMM Hackers break great story on GLOBAL WARMING HOAX, some of it may not be true but I like how the “scienists” who’s email was hacked DON’T DENY THE EMAILS ARE ACCURATE” they refuse comment except to condemn the hackers.More to follow? I bet there will be!

Climate sceptics claim leaked emails are evidence of collusion among scientists | Environment | guar
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Hundreds of emails and documents exchanged between world’s leading climate scientists stolen by hackers and leaked online
God Bless America and Semper Fidelis
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.” – Lord Tytler

From: <Addresses suppressed>
To:<Addresses suppressed>
Cc: <Addresses suppressed>
Sent: Sun, November 22, 2009 12:48:05 AM
Subject: RE: Global warning – on recess, late to return to classIt seems some of our more learned people are finally getting the point. Our climate is the result of as many things outside of the Earth (e.g., variations in Sun’s energy output) as the things on or in the Earth. Plus, looking 100, 200, 500 or even 5000 years of history of Earth’s climate is just not nearly enough. 5000 years is just a drop in the bucket over the lifetime of the Earth (5+- billion years: = 5000 x 1000 x 1000 or one millionth of the Earths total lifetime). . We need to know how many times the Earth has been here and done that without any help from puny humans. Then maybe we can begin to narrow down on the real cause/effect relationships in climate change.Ask Irwin or Lorin or Roger L, or Roger Claus or Philip or Nathan or Shawn or Ted, or Bill, or Larry, ….. what would have happened to any capacity plan that used (1/1,000,000^th) of the available historical resource usage data to project the next 12 – 24 months of computer utilization. The people doing these projections for global warming, are at best pseudo scientists. The people trying to turn this pseudo science into a cause or a religion are at best charlatans.jb<Name & phone numbers suppressed>

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” –Winston Churchill
Semper Fi
From: <Address suppressed>
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 8:16 PM
To: <Addresses suppressed>
Subject: Global warning – on recess,late to return to class
From the Wall Street Journal…
November 20, 2009 — 4:21 p.m. EST
Losing Faith?
“Global warming appears to have stalled,” reports Der Spiegel. “Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years”:
At least the weather in Copenhagen is likely to be cooperating. The Danish Meteorological Institute predicts that temperatures in December, when the city will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, will be one degree above the long-term average.
Otherwise, however, not much is happening with global warming at the moment. The Earth’s average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year. . . .
Even though the temperature standstill probably has no effect on the long-term warming trend, it does raise doubts about the predictive value of climate models, and it is also a political issue. For months, climate change skeptics have been gloating over the findings on their Internet forums. This has prompted many a climatologist to treat the temperature data in public with a sense of shame, thereby damaging their own credibility.
“It cannot be denied that this is one of the hottest issues in the scientific community,” says Jochem Marotzke, director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. “We don’t really know why this stagnation is taking place at this point.”
Why in the world should one take seriously the claim that “the temperature standstill probably has no effect on the long-term warming trend”? That is presumably no more than a prediction made by the same people whose predictions are currently not panning out. This quote is telling:
The planet’s temperature curve rose sharply for almost 30 years, as global temperatures increased by an average of 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.25 degrees Fahrenheit) from the 1970s to the late 1990s. “At present, however, the warming is taking a break,” confirms meteorologist Mojib Latif of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in the northern German city of Kiel. Latif, one of Germany’s best-known climatologists, says that the temperature curve has reached a plateau. “There can be no argument about that,” he says. “We have to face that fact.”
If global warming is really the horror it has been made out to be, its absence ought to be a gift to be celebrated, not a “fact” that “we have to face.” But global warmism isn’t a scientific theory anymore; it is an ideology in which many people, including those who are supposed to be doing science, have invested their prestige and money.
—
Lorin Olsen
<Phone numbers suppressed>
“Everyone thinks of changing the world. No one thinks of changing himself.”-Tolstoy

Is Anybody There? Does Anybody Care?

November 20, 2009August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Senator Sam Brownback

Senator Pat Roberts

As a concerned citizen of the state of Kansas and the United States, I am horrified by the US Senate’s proposed health care legislation. I cannot fully define all of the problems that I believe are built into this legislative leviathan. But here are some of my major challenges:

1. This bill supports the creation of a federal bureaucracy in the health care sector of our economy. And while I do favor ensuring that US citizens are never w/o catastrophic health care, I cannot support any plan that expands government control of the health care industry. There are several reasons for my concerns:

a) I have read the Constitution many times. And the 10th Amendment is clear: the federal government has no powers that are not specifically articulated in the Constitution itself. And I see no clauses in the Constitution that empower the federal government to ever regulate the health care industry. And while I do recognize the Supreme Court’s authority to interpret the Constitution, where can they find such powers? In a mythical penumbra of powers given Congress in the commerce clauses? This is an absurd exaggeration of what our Founding Fathers intended.

b) Apart from defense spending, the government does not have any kind of a proven track-record in these areas. At the same time, the government has proven to be a sub-optimal player in health care (witness the VA and Medicare).

2. This bill will further exacerbate an already uncontrollable (and fiscally irresponsible) expansion of the national debt. I know I can’t afford to pay more taxes – unless I stop buying anything but essentials. Of course, such reductions in spending will only further deflate the economy. Worse still, this bill will imperil the future of my four children and my one grandchild. Finally, it is positively obscene that this bill would collect taxes for years even before a single penny is spent for currently uninsured citizens. Is this because the program is not self-funding? And if it isn’t, what happens in the second decade when there isn’t any surplus remaining?

3. While the current bill has not been finalized, there is no way that we should consider extending health care to people that are here illegally. I support relaxed immigration. But I can’t understand why we want to spend tens (if not hundreds) of billions of dollars to provide health care to criminals who violate our laws. The utter hypocrisy of such a situation is unfathomable.

4. I am horrified that even one penny of my income would ever go to fund the unconscionable murder of unborn children. I won’t belabor a thoroughly noxious debate. But I cannot imagine the government forcibly taking my income to kill innocent children. By not supporting the funding restrictions of the House bill (i.e., the Stupak amendment), you will be forcing me to commit what I believe is murder. This is a fundamental change to our system of compassionate governance.

With these and many more things in mind, I urge you to vote against even considering this piece of legislation. From my perspective, such a step would vacate our claim that we are a nation founded upon the motto “In God We Trust.”

Sincerely

Lorin Olsen

Realtime Reporting Is Evolving…

January 31, 2009August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

…towards realtime collaboration. And the transition is exciting.
Yesterday was a busy day at work. It’s the busy time of year in the tax preparation business. And I’m always multitasking: planning for next year’s systems, supporting systems we’ve deployed this year, and consulting on systems that are experiencing trouble at any given moment.
But even on busy days, there is time to multitask on other matters. I knew that the Republican National Committee was holding their election for the new committee chairman. And I really wanted to watch what was happening – in realtime. As someone who uses social media as an avocation, I knew that there were ways of getting realtime feeds of data. I did a little checking and found that three or four of my favorite commentators were live-blogging the event. So I was quite excited.
I remember when I used to go to state conventions and state committee meetings. That was quite a while ago. When I used to attend, there really were smoke-filled rooms. Of course, many had smoke in them because I used to smoke a pipe. But that’s a different story… In the past, only an annointed few individuals were privvy to the rooms where important decisions were made. If you were lucky, an enterprising reporter might post a story in a local paper. And a few folks could get telephone updates from friends who were at the venue. But you never had any realtime view into the process.
That all changed with the advent of the worldwide web. And those changes accelerated with the introduction of blogs. If you knew someone who was attending, you could get an update of events within a few hours. And that was wonderful. But while you could receive data faster, it was an evolution and not a revolution.
But the last four years have seen some important changes. First, wireless phones have introduced the ability to get instant feedback (via SMS or the web). Second, text messages have been augmented with the addition of rich media – including both audio and video. Thid, everyone has these devices. So anyone in attendance at a meeting can communicate. These three shifts in communications have enabled everything I saw yesterday. And live blogging has been a real difference maker.
This week’s RNC meeting was something altogether different. Not only was there good communications (despite WiFi troubles at the hotel), but communications became multi-dimensional. Live blogging has always meant that realtime posts could be sent from conferences and meetings. But microblogging (using Twitter, Friendfeed and other tools) has meant that short and pithy bursts of info could be sent in realtime. More importantly, short messages could be sent form the outside to the inside of the venue. And this simple fact transformed everything.
I was sitting in Kansas City. I was not in the meeting room. But there were a few dozen people who were there and who were twittering the event. And these people provded multiple views (and voices) about what was transpiring. And I heard the voices of various operatives from many of the different candidates. But more importantly, I and other people could send questions or engage in realtime conversations about what was transpiring. This made those “on the outside” seem to be part of the process. This fact alone should increase excitement and participation by those who couldn’t otherwise attend. But I am sure that many people at the venue used the feedback from the remote audience as a means of gauging what the common folk might think of what was going on behind closed doors.
Of course, the only folks who were engaged in the #rncchair discussions on Twitter were twitterati and cognoscenti. But these folks were a fantastic proving ground for the technology. And the growing applicability of this technology was apparent to all. Folks who had broadband connectivity and a larger screen were at a tremendous advantage. They could provide and receive far more information for their use. I am sure that the various candidates’ teams had various levels of technology. And those with a good handle on the technology (i.e., those who posessed smartphones like iPhones and BlackBerries) were at an even great advantage. [Note: It was clear that Saul Anuzis’ team stayed in the race for a long time because he had mastered many of the communications channels available to him.]
As technology becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous, more and more people will gain more and more advantage from these technologies. And as the software and services become even more accessible (i.e., less complex) even more people will be able to take advantage of realtime participation.
In the end, the technology alone did not make a deterministic difference. Michael Steels won the race because he had a good plan and he executed it quite effectively. Many folks will point to a specific reason that they think was critical for Steele’s success. I won’t be so bold. I wasn’t there. But I know that Michael Steele didn’t lose the race due to an insufficient grasp on the communications technologies at his disposal. Indeed, why else do you think Michael Steels was so visible as a Fox News contributor? He knew the imporance of using communications tools to energize his base while broadening his reach. And the communications tools available to us today helped to make that possible.
I’ll leave each of you the assignment to determine why Michael Steele won the chairmanship. In the meantime, I used a variety of tools to stay”in the know” – Twitter, hashtags (specifically, #rncchair and #tcot), Twitter search (at http://search.twitter.com) and Twitterfall (http://www.twitterfall.com). Twitterfall is fantastic. It provided a realtime rolling (or falling) ticker of a particular conversation thread. I was able to see who the talkers were as well as see who I should be following.
And for those interested in metrics… By getting involved in this one event, I saw my overall follower count (on Twitter) grow by over 20%. Of course, I started from a small base, but the real numbers were nonetheless impressive.
Finally, I would like to reinforce an important point: I do like to send “thank you’s” to the folks that followed me as a result of this event. I use SocialToo.com as a means of responding to all new followers. It is a great tool to help “personalize” the process of nurtturing your following. If you didn’t receive a “Thank You’ from me, drop me a note and I’ll send you a personalized email with my warmest thanks..

-Roo

For Better or Worse – Google Is The Center of the Universe

January 31, 2009August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

I got up very early this morning (~5AM) to the whining dogs. Our son had left a light on in the living room. So the dogs woke up early to the light. I dragged myself out of bed to give them a walk and then feed them. After about thirty minutes of light chores, I settled down to the computer to start to put together a post about the RNC Chairman’s race (which I will do later).
Over night, I was converting one of my DVD’s to a video file I can use on a portabe player. And everything was running very slowly. And I mean verrrrry slooooowwwwwly. Normally, I can get a DVD converted in five or six hours. But this one was only six or seven percent complete after eight hours. And nothing was moving on my system.
bad_google I had recently upgraded to Windows 7. So I figured that maybe there was some problem with Handbrake and Windows 7. So I got onto Google and did a quick search. I was then confronted with the fact that all of my search results were flagged as containing malware. That couldn’t be the case. After all, some of these sites were very trusted sites that I use all the time.
Google couldn’t be wrong. So maybe I had something on my local machine. So I started to run malware scans on my system. I ran both Malwarebytes as well as Spybot Search & Destroy. And everything was crawling along. So I started to get concerned that I had a more serious problem on my system. [Note: Paranoia is not always a good thing. I was starting to see risks lurking on every sector of my hard drive.]
I started looking at the process list and noted that I had my anti-virus scan in progress. This was quite odd as the weekly scan normally completes it’s work very early every Saturday morning. So I’m starting to get quite nervous. I must have some kind of “bad” bug that needed special eradication. I stpped the AV scan and saw that the video encoding started to move along. In fifty minutes, it had encoded a quarter of the file. So I’m figuring that Windows 7 Beta + Handbrake + a simultaneous AV scan may be a bad combination.
But what about the malware that Google tipped me off to? Since two different anti-malware tools proclaimed the cleanliness of my system, I started to relax. And since my video conversion was progressing, I stepped away from the computer for a couple of hours. When I returned, things were still slow. But that happens when a video conversion tool takes over 90% of the CPU.
So I decided to check some of my social networing sites. And I started with Google Reader. It was there that I found my answer: Google had implemented a bad piece of code. According to every source on the web, I was a victim of Google’s attempt to incorporate http://www.stopbadware.org into their search results. And a human error had literally flagged all search results as containing malware.
So with this tidbit of information, my problem is solved, right? Not really as I had just demonstrated the problem of trust and social engineering. You see, I “trusted” Google as a company that made few (or no) errors. Indeed, even their “beta” code is better than other companies and their “production” code. And to make matters worse, Google is the center of my universe. I search using Google. I use GMail for most of my personal email. I use GReader as the means of aggregating all the RSS feeds I consume. In point of fact, Google is the center of my Internet experience. And I had trusted them so much, that I did not even consider that they might have an error. I assumed that my system was at fault. After all, the people at Google are experts.
So what is a ‘roo to do. First, I must remember the words of our 40th President: trust, but verify. Then I need to remember not to be doing too many things at once. I was running a program for the first time on a new OS at the same time that I run anti-viral scans. Um, I’ll try and avoid that perfect storm in the future.
But I am also reminded of some corrolary applications for this situation. I should never make a man, a woman, a company, a government or even a political party take up residence in the center of my universe. After all, the center of my universe should be occupied by the only indivudal who is completely worthy of that role: the Lord God Almighty. Only He is completely trustworthy. No man (and certainly no organization) should be trusted so intimately or so completely. The results of such a misapplication of trust could be disastrous.
So as of today, I don’t trust Google as much. And I am reminded why I should’t trust elected officials (of any party) so much. Reagan was right; trust, but verify.

-Roo

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

November 30, 2008August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

I love the holidays. I love the joyful time with my family. I love the good cheer in everyone’s heart. But my cheerful heart is troubled this holiday season. The litany of challenges need not be fully itemized. But here are a couple of the things that leave me apprehensive:

Our economy is in one of the greatest upheavals that it has ever experienced – at least, during my lifetime.
Families across the nation are struggling to survive this upheaval. Thousands of hardworking and dedicated people now find themsleves without jobs. And it is horrifying to realize that you can no longer meet the needs of your family – especially during this overly-commercialized time of year.
We have seen desperate people take desperate steps just to overcome their economic bondage. In Africa, these people have seized ships on the high seas – after all, they’re pirates. But they live amongst the normal fishing villagers of Somalia. And the fishing villagers seem willing to protect and defend them. They have felt econimic despair for generations. And that despair has been transformed into anger and hatred.
We are still mired in international conflicts against a shadowy foe who seeks to extinguish our very existence.
We have seen that foe kill almost 300 people in an orgy of hate and despair during the past week.

As I write and read this list, I am very frightened for the future that may await us. I see how legitimate concerns and fundamental inequalities can be transformed into irredeemable despair. Indeed, it is despair that has transformed a number of Afghans, Pakistanis, Somalis and Palestinians into the agents of terror which the West so easily demonizes.
These and many other challenges now face this world and the peoples of the world. In the last generation, many nations of the world turned to communism as the means of righting these wrongs. Indeed, even today, nations like Venezuela have turned to agrarian “communism” in a vain effort to transform their circumstances.
And a generation before that, we saw the Nazis exploit the fear and despair of Europe in a murderous effort to seize control of the world. A horrific economic tsunami led to the collapse of Germany and the rise of Nazi Germany. In the warm confines of our comfortable houses, we wondered why the German people would ever despair and turn to such evil. But we are now faced with an economic tsunami that may well challenge every one of us.
But amidst the chaos, fear and mounting pressure of despair, I also see the transformational power of hope. In the United States, the people have voted to “hope” and work for a better future. Don’t misunderstand these words. I did not (and do not) support the politics of Barack Obama. But President-elect Obama has revealed one of the most fundamental truths about America: we are a hopeful and a decent people. I certainly pray that his message of hope will be the start of an amazing resurgence of America’s good will.
Yes, there are inequalities in our nation. And there are some indecencies which boggle the mind. But at our very core, we are a people that rise to challenges rather than shirk them. We embrace a fair challenge. And we will fight against indecencies that we see around us. As a people, we are uniquely willing to look in the mirror, recognize our own shortcomings, and strive to overcome them.
But while we can change much, the fundamentals of this world have never changed. There have always been inequalities. And every one of us can be counted upon to live down to our lowest impulses. Despite the grand and noble gains that America has represented, we are only a representation of the best that can be achieved by fallen man.
And thus enters the infant. At this time of year, we are reminded that one infant can transform the world. And this is such an upliting message: one child CAN transform the world. But if we leave this as a story of hope triumphing over despair, we miss the real point of the story. There was something extraordinary and special about this child. This is not the story of ANY child making a differnce; it is the story of one special child making the difference. If the story of the virgin conception wasn’t enough to proclaim the uniqueness of this child, then the host of angels proclaiming His birth might remind us of the fact that this was not any ordinary child. This child was unique and unrivaled in the history of the world.
While the world of Israel was under siege from the cruelty of Rome, God delivered His own solution. He did not rely upon the warm-hearted good cheer of the dozens of messiahs that arose throughout Israel. Instead, God chose to enter a world that had willingly and intentionally spat into His face. His children had abandoned Him – and then cried out to Him when their despair became too great.
Are we not in the very same situation? For generations, God has blessed us. And God has used us to help others. But we have come to rely upon ourselves and not rely upon Him. We see our own greatness and fail to remember that God is the only truly great one. Whatever we have achieved is because we have trusted Him to guide us. God led people to this nation. God cared for those people. Indeed, the Thanksgiving holiday is a testament to trusting God for our daily bread.
But now we are at a crossroads. God is asking us to trust Him (and not ourselves). God is asking us to care for one aother. God is asking us to set aside our own selfish sense of accomplishment. We need to let our glory pass and remember the glory of the Child. We must remember that this child came to die on our behalf. The birth of this child is hope. But the death of the Christ is victory. If we want to become all that God has in store for us, we cannot stop at hope. We must be prepared to sacrifice ourselves – and we must accept the sacrifices of others. And we must accept the most important of all sacrifices: the substitutionary death of the Christ.
Every time you hear the bells ringing this holiday season, remember the promise of hope – and remember the responisbility of the Christmas child.
-Roo

The intersection of vision and action

Category: Politics