North Korea’s virtual war

As I groggily woke up before dawn this morning I had some insight on North Korea pop into my head. North Korea has been broadcasting bellicose statements to the world, escalating international concern much higher than in decades. Curiously, these threats have come in the middle of the night, Korea-time. The North Korean populace seems completely unaware.

The insight is that, no matter how large the North Korean army is, Kim Jong Un can’t win. If he nukes someone, he definitely loses, but it wouldn’t take a nuke to destroy his society.

Let’s say he’s dumb enough to send troops to invade South Korea. This is an army, while formidable in numbers, doesn’t trust its soldiers at the DMZ to go sprinting across to the South. If they get to South Korea, what will keep them from not returning?
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Remote control death

I read about the death of 8-year-old Martin Richard in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings and it brought a tear to my eye. Here’s this innocent little kid who never hurt anyone, waiting to give his dad a hug and he gets killed by a bomb blast. Whomever would do this to an innocent kid is a coward.

Then MT.Net reader Aetius points out that this is what happens when U.S. military pilots, flying drones from miles away, fire rockets meant for terrorists into foreign homes. If I were a Pakistani father whose innocent 8-year-old son was just murdered by a man sitting safely miles away, would I feel any less outraged than we do with the Boston attacks? Would I consider the killer any less cowardly than the perpetrator of the Boston attacks?

Does our President have the right to express outrage about the Boston attacks when he knows full well that he has approved the killings of potentially hundreds (if not thousands) of innocent people through secret drone strikes? At what point did we Americans acquiesce to our President becoming judge, jury, and executioner without any oversight whatsoever?

Any innocent death is one death too many. Does it really matter whether that death comes from a jury-rigged pressure cooker bomb or on the tip of a Hellfire missile? The Defense Department is withdrawing its plans to award medals to drone pilots. What does it say when even the DoD has doubts about the bravery of its remote control killers?

Is remote control death the business America really wants to be in?

Is Peace University plotting to demolish Seaboard Station?

The neighbors are up in arms about rumors that William Peace University (formerly Peace College) is interested in buying the popular Shops at Seaboard Station. The retail space has finally turned a corner with a thriving mix of shops and restaurants, becoming a community focal point in the process. The rumors allege that Peace wants to purchase the property and slowly drain it of its tenants, after which it will demolish the complex to provide space for expanding its campus.

Here’s what the Mordecai CAC had to say:

MCAC Community:

You may be hearing about some changes in the works for the Shops at Seaboard and the possibility that William Peace University is interested in buying that property. We’d like to tell you what we know, what we don’t know, and what we’re trying to find out!

1. First, WPU is requesting permission from the City Council to seek financing through the issuance of tax-exempt bonds to be issued by the Public Finance Authority located in the State of Wisconsin. As part of the process, City Council will hold a public hearing on the bonds at 2 p.m. tomorrow (Apr 16) at City Hall. According to the attorney’s memo, the educational facilities revenue bonds would not exceed $16 million, and would be used to refinance existing loans at lower interest rates, to renovate Finley and Ross Residence Halls, construct a new residence hall on campus, construct Delway Street adjacent to the campus, and other projects. (See attached memo.) These bonds, if approved, MUST be used for the purposes as stated.
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Terrorism by any other name

Yesterday afternoon, some coward blew up bombs on a crowded Boston street near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. At this point three people have died and over 100 were injured. It was a horrific ending to what should have been a triumphant moment for these runners, their families, and their friends. So far President Obama has stopped short of calling it terrorism. Others suspect it’s terrorism and some are even speculating that it’s domestic terrorism.

I am aghast that anyone could think it’s anything but terrorism.

Wikitionary defines terrorism as:

The deliberate commission of an act of violence to create an emotional response through the suffering of the victims in the furtherance of a political or social agenda.

Yeah, I know I should never quote a wiki but it’s a good definition.

I would say that murdering innocents is always considered terrorism. Any time some disturbed person goes on a deadly shooting rampage, it’s terrorism. Any time an American with a chip on his shoulder detonates an explosive-laden truck near a crowded federal building, it’s terrorism. Any time some coward leaves backpacks on a crowded Boston street to kill innocent people, it’s terrorism.

There is no such thing as “domestic terrorism.” It’s terrorism. If someone kills someone I love, I’m not inclined to treat them differently based on where they live: it won’t bring my loved one back. Whether a foreigner with a twisted sense of justice blows someone up or a fellow American with a twisted sense of justice blows someone up doesn’t matter. They are both killers and both cowards.

They way to defeat terrorism is to go on living and refused to be cowed by these cowardly attacks. That, and do all you can to bring the bastards to justice.

How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing

I hate Intuit already for their horrible customer service when I was a QuickBooks customer. Now it seems I have a new reason to hate them: they lobby against the IRS offering simple tax filing.

The idea, known as “return-free filing,” would be a voluntary alternative to hiring a tax preparer or using commercial tax software. The concept has been around for decades and has been endorsed by both President Ronald Reagan and a campaigning President Obama.

“This is not some pie-in-the-sky that’s never been done before,” said William Gale, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. “It’s doable, feasible, implementable, and at a relatively low cost.”

So why hasn’t it become a reality?

Well, for one thing, it doesn’t help that it’s been opposed for years by the company behind the most popular consumer tax software — Intuit, maker of TurboTax. Conservative tax activist Grover Norquist and an influential computer industry group also have fought return-free filing.

via How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing – ProPublica.

Saving passwords in browsers

SalesForce.com
I get annoyed at some companies’ misguided attempts at password security. Take SalesForce.com, for instance (please!).

SalesForce is a web-based customer relationship management system. It holds a lot of sensitive corporate data and rightly should be protected from unauthorized access. While we SalesForce customers are expected to trust SalesForce with we consider sensitive data, SalesForce does not trust us with what itconsiders sensitive data, namely one’s own SalesForce password. SalesForce deliberately disables the ability of Firefox and other webbrowers to automatically save your SalesForce password and automatically re-enter it when you return to the login page.
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Cheap Thoughts: Smartphone keys

I hate keys, as I’ve written about many times before. I also hate keycards, and thought it was ridiculous that my office suite requires two separate keycards: one for the building and one for the suite.

Yet in my pocket is a miracle of computing and communications power: a smartphone. My smartphone knows my identity when I swipe the security code to unlock it. It’s capable of very strong encryption and decryption. Why can’t I use my smartphone as a key to unlock my office doors? It sure would be more secure than relying on ancient technology like tumbler locks and keys.

Update 9 April: My friend Steve sends me links to the UniKey and the Lockitron, both of which are very, very interesting!

Downtown renaissance

Since Friday night was the last of our “date nights” before the kids came home from staying with Kelly’s parents, Kelly and I rode our bikes into downtown Raleigh for First Friday festivities.

Walking along a bustling, closed-off section of Hargett Street in front of the Raleigh Times, I had to stop for a moment and soak in the experience.

“You know,” I told Kelly, “I remember touring this downtown one summertime Friday night in 1987 and it was an absolute ghost town. I mean, there was nothing open and nothing going on.”

Seeing the sidewalks filled with happy citizens was quite the contrast to the empty, scary downtown still locked in my memory for 26 years. What an incredible transformation that has taken place in Raleigh since the time I met this city and later called it home. I’m proud to have been here and being a part of this transformation.

Solar tax credits safe … for now

Kelly and I were concerned that the current shenanigans in the North Carolina General Assembly might put the kibosh on our claiming tax credits for our impending solar PV installation. Southern Energy suggested we reach out to Randy Lucas of Lucas Tax and Energy for his take.

Randy responded with this:

I can say as a licensed CPA with 20 years of tax experience, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the NC Sustainable Energy Association, despite the current activities in the NCGA, it is highly unlikely that any potential changes to the NC renewable energy investment tax credit would have any impact on any activity/transactions made by NC -based taxpayers in calendar year 2013. It would be unprecedented for the tax laws to change within the active tax year and would cause an administrative catastrophe for the NC Dept of Revenue to carryout the tax law change mid-year. That said, if you are making a purchase of renewable energy property in 2013, and have plans/intent to complete the install in 2013, you should be safe to claim both the Federal (30%) and North Carolina (35%) investment tax credits on your 2013 income tax return.
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