This week I got the first unsolicited telemarketer call I’ve received in probably four years. I’ve been blissfully immune to that damned phone-ringing-during-dinner syndrome. That is, until last weekend.

The perp was a mortgage company which wouldn’t take no for an answer. Three times, Kelly and I hung up on this woman, telling her “no, not interested.” It was only when Kelly said the Magic Legal Words “Do Not Call” that she finally quit. Now what kind of idiot wouldn’t stop after the first no? The second? Why did it take three frigging times before she got the message? Did she think we’d give in or something?

I have long ago registered our name, address, and number on the Direct Marketing Association’s Do Not Call list. I have also told the credit bureaus (1-888-5-OPTOUT) and credit card companies not to sell our number. Miraculously, they have all kept their word. It was the easiest and most effective way I tried to stem these annoying calls. Until this week, it was bulletproof.

I suppose the telemarketers, on the ropes from the recent legislation, have resorted to desperate measures. I mean, blatantly ignoring the Do Not Call list! Idiots. I only wish I’d gotten the name of her firm so I could trash it here. That, and maybe track down how they found me.

On the subject of banning the calls altogether, I’m not in favor of that. The privacy advocate in me (no calls!) gets overruled by the libertarian in me (First Amendment!). As long as the industry respects the consumer’s wishes, no legislation should be necessarsy. Sadly, it’s idiots like the one who called me that drive the legislation.

Please welcome Steve Wills to the blogroll. Steve and I worked together at NetraCursed as system administrators. Steve has one of the best-tuned BS-detectors I’ve ever seen.

Stop by his page and tell him I sent ya.

Found this link on Doc’s website. Bruce Schneier thinks the Blaster virus caused the Great Blackout of 2003. He makes a convincing case, too, reading between the lines of the offical report. Something caused all of First Energy Ohio’s monitoring computers to simultaneously freeze. Sound like a virus to you?

This could also be the fuel for the recent road show that Tom “Mr. Homeland Security” Ridge and his trusty sidekick..er, deputy, Robert Liscouski, have been taking to techies. Their blunt message to tech companies is the proverbial offer-you-can’t-refuse: clean up your code or face potential regulation.

“There should be no mistake about where we stand,” Liscouski said during a press conference at the summit. “We are not going to let anybody who operates in this space dodge their responsibility, and I will be sticking my finger into people’s chests to make sure they live up to their responsibilities.”

I was a bit mystified by this statement when the story broke last week. Why the hell does Homeland Security care about viruses? Surely no fool would run mission-critical systems on flawed operating systems? Yet, if that is in fact what happened, you could expect this exact reaction. That is: don’t dare let on that a stupid computer virus took out a huge chunk of the North American power grid, but discreetly go after the perpetrators once the lights are back on. If YOUR computer caught a virus that crashed an entire power grid, would YOU ‘fess up? I thought so!

This is not without precedent, of course. The same power company had its network completely o\/\/n3d earlier this summer by the Slammer worm. And here I was, thinking guys like Homer Simpson only worked at nuke plants in the CARTOONS! Morons.

(I’ll refrain from pointing out that there are other choices for clean, stable operating systems because that should obvious.)

There’s been a revival of Bubb Rubb in the office lately. I got tired of Bubb months ago, but some folks in the office are just catching on. It’s still amusing to hear the occasional “wooo whoooo!” around the office. I know I’ll soon be praying he will soon disappear again. 🙂

Even stranger than that is the fact that I still get a significant number of search engine referrals with “Bubb Rubb” in the search term.

December thunder…sounds like a name for a military operation, huh? I heard thunder about 20 minutes ago. It was quite out of place, seeing how its mid-December. It’s rained buckets today, too. And it still continues.

There was some talk in the office yesterday about how strange it is to have two named storms cruising the Atlantic, long after hurricane season has offically ended.

And what is this talk about an earthquake west of Richmond? When I first heard that, I thought “yeah, west… as in California.” But the epicenter of this 4.5 quake was 30 miles west of Richmond. When it struck at 4 PM yesterday, I never noticed a thing. Dang.

Ol’ Mother Earth loves keeping us on our toes.

Legendary N.C. State basketball coach Norm Sloan passed away yesterday. Lots of comments today about his life.

He coached an N.C. State with David Thompson and Tommy Burleson to a national title in 1974 and provided a spark to the N.C. State-Carolina rivalry.

Even Dean Smith’s comments on Sloan still hint of the sting. No mention of “he was a good friend,” or “what a great guy,” Dean only mentions Norm’s coaching ability:

“What a great coach Norm Sloan was,” Smith said Tuesday. “Believe me, they were our main rivals when he was at N.C. State. His teams played extremely hard.

“He was such a competitor. He passed that on to his players. They played hard, but they played smart, too.”

Sloan obviously did a lot for N.C. State, but he also did a great deal for ACC basketball, too. The Wolfpack faithful owe a lot to him.

I have something to say tonight, but I don’t have time to put it into words. Still beat from this friggin’ cold. Couldn’t even keep my eyes open after dinner.

As my old division chief used to say “I have my reasons …I’m just not ready to go into them now.”

So I’m being a Google Groupie (or ‘ho?) tonight, checking to see who is linking to my site. Turns out I got linkage once on a site called the HippyHillNews, run by a gentleman named Todd Melet. Funny thing is, my link isn’t there anymore.

Looks like I’m down to four MarkTurner.net readers, though, as Todd apparently doesn’t stop by anymore. Guess he decided his politics (quite conservative, if I read him right) and mine (fiscally conservative, otherwise pretty damn wide open) are pretty far apart. No biggie. I’ll add him to my blogroll, anyway.

You see, I don’t have anything against Republicans. Some of my best friends are Republicans. I chuckle at P.J. O’Roarke. I even admire things George H.W. Bush, Barry Goldwater, John McCain, and – hell – even Jesse Helms have done. That doesn’t mean I agree with everything they’ve done.

In fact, a lot of things Republicans do I don’t agree with. But you know? That’s okay. Because this is America, where everyone has an opinion and is entitled to a voice. As long as you can reason for yourself and have something to add, I’ll listen. That doesn’t mean I have to agree, mind you, but you’ve got a chance to make your pitch.

What triggers my defense shields are the so-called “dittoheads.” These are the folks who don’t choose to think for themselves, turning over that task to whatever talk-radio personality might be raging at the moment. That, or the folks who continually paint things in extremes, demonizing the other party (and yes, I include “both” parties).

Truth is, America was built from the input from all sides. It thrives when all sides are participating. Think of that “United We Stand” junk, but not just a marketing scheme. For real. There’s a name for a system where only one party matters: it’s called “communism.”

I’d like to see less finger-pointing and blaming going on in politics. But then again, I’d like to see peace in the Middle East, and flying pigs. My point is, the two-party system in this country lends itself to the “anybody-but” crowd. Its often too easy to demonize the other side, rather than explain what you can do.

So here’s what I’ll do. I’ll link to the conservative blogs I find. In return, I ask you post a link to mine. Let folks read what they want and make up their own minds.

(In case you are still wondering, I consider myself libertarian.)

In the spirit of the last post, I’d like to make mention of the biggest Seminole fan on the Internet. I’d also like to mention the Bad Ham song author, as well as the original Blizzog, the one J.G. writes.

I’m trying to think of other appropriate names for my favorite pages. Y’all help a brother out.